Beesy took part in a dress rehearsal once. It was at school and cutting a very long story short a career on stage a screen was cruelly cut short by forgotten lines, a rogue piece of scenery and mild concussion.
In short dress rehearsal are shit and destroyers of dreams.
In fact if this drawn out analogy is to be repeated fully at Wembley Carlisle won’t turn up and will only be seen about a week later with a bandage around their collective heads. Crying.
But let’s start at the beginning… Griffin Park at night, underpowered floodlights and people in suits trying to stomach eating a burger/ pie/ yorkie/ any combination of the three.
Three line up changes saw Simon Moore come in for the injured Richard Lee; Pim Balkenstein for the sick Karleigh Osborne and Jeffrey Schlupp for the a bit rubbish Lewis Grabban.
Beesy last proper look at Brentford was the Peterborough debacle (and it was a debacle regardless of how you think the second half went). How would Brentford play under Forster… well it certainly is a new Brentford. One where the ball gets knocked about a bit, not always in that familiar uncontrolled way, and the shape looks a little better (i.e. they try and stay in shape).
It doesn’t always work, at times Reid was guilty of coming inside too much leaving an excellent Neilson an entire flank to patrol and Alexander and Schlupp probably need more time together to form a partnership. Or Alexander needs dropping. He’s a terrible terrible target man.
But lordy clearly the most impressive change in the post Scott era is the emergence of Marcus Bean in an advanced role. This automatically gave the team a better shape than under Scott, with Dave playing the deeper midfield role and Bean able to support both Schlupp and Alexander.
All this together meant Brentford probably shaded the opening without creating too much. Jeffrey Schlupp made a decent run before toe poking at the keeper being probably the best chance. With Bean having a header cleared off the line and a goalkeeping misjudgement on a Weston free kick being the only other notable moments.
Carlisle did come into the game as the half drew on mainly thanks to closing down the play much faster but also in no small part due to Pim Balkenstein and his increasingly laboured defensive efforts.
In fact the defence was shaky all night. From Moore taking too long to clear the ball and having his kick charged down (or up and over in reality), to Woodman’s clearance off the line (from a decent Moore save, to Moore rushing out to smother a Carlisle through ball. The defence suffered from uncertainty and panic.
This featured more heavily in the second half when Carlisle attacked with more purpose. They are a relatively tidy team going forward and should have scored relatively early on. Woodman had a half he would probably want to forget and some terrible shooting and desperate blocking saw Carlisle waste 3/4 good chances.
And in many ways they did look more likely to score. Particularly when Neilson had to be taken off to be replaced by the competent if unexciting right backery of Kevin O’Connor and even worse Miles Weston replaced by Sam Wood.
Naturally this ruled out a goal from the flanks. Moderately against the run of play a big punt from Moore was flicked on by Alexander. This in itself probably stunned the Carlisle defence as he didn’t look like winning anything in the air all night (let’s be honest he’s rubbish) and in the confusion Jeffrey Schlupp atoned for his terrible miss against Leyton Orient by smashing the ball past the Carlisle keeper.
Ok, it was a bit lucky in terms of the ball ricocheted into his path during the flick on confusion but it was an emphatic finish.
And it got better. Firstly Dave almost scored the most unlikely goal of the season when he laboured around numerous defenders before shooting wide.
Secondly Carlisle failed to clear a free kick put into the box despite various attempts the ball eventually falling to Jeffrey Schlupp on the edge of the area who smashed it in.
Strangely Carlisle gave up the ghost after this and Brentford looked to be coasting to a simple win. Defensive shenanigans aside and a terrible mix up that almost saw Moore sent off with all the subs used (Legge was eventually penalised for an earlier foul) and Michalik driving the resulting free kick past Moore Carlisle seemed reluctant to press too much.
So a psychological edge to Brentford? Probably not. It was a better match to win than lose but Carlisle had enough opportunities to interest them next Sunday.
But Brentford are playing well and they are suddenly fun to watch again…
Moore – Not a great deal to do thanks to poor shooting. Needs to work on decision making but… he’s young 6
Neilson (sub O’Connor 65 mins) – A proper Right Back. Looked good up until injury 7
Legge – The more solid of the centre backs. 7
Balkestein – Hmmmm… Let’s hope Karleigh is stocking up on Antibiotics. 5
Woodman – Remember OUT not UP. Better than Balkenstein 6
Reed (sub Byrne 61 mins) – Good. Probably a central midfielder mind 7
Bean – Looks a different player under Forster 8
Dave – Solid 7
Weston (sub Wood 74 mins) – Linked up well with Schlupp if a little ineffective at times 6
Alexander – Can’t jump and doesn’t win headers. Not a Beesy favourite 6
Schlupp – Yay Jeffrey Schlupp. A more good Ricky Shakes. Put the ball into space on the big Wembley pitch and let him run run run 8
