Well, it doesn't really feel like league football has been gone during the end of season break.
After a dismal summer in South Africa, most football fans now return to their respective teams and get ready to embark on another season of thrills and spills. For Brentford, this is no different.
After a truly excellent first year back in League One after two seasons at the bottom rung of league football, Brentford are looking to advance in League One, and Andy Scott has injected some well needed new blood into the first team. Nicky Forster has made his return to Brentford FC after 13 years away from the club, and at 36, will look to help in whatever way he can as a utility striker. Forster made a total of 121 appearances during his first tenure at Griffin Park before leaving to join Birmingham City.
Another new face in the first team spent the end of last season on loan with the Bee’s and impressed Andy Scott so much, that he signed him to a three-year deal. Toumani Diagouraga made only 21 starts for then-Championship side Peterborough before his loan-cum-full time spell at Brentford. The young midfielder will settle right in at Griffin Park, and being 6ft 2inchs tall, he will add a new dimension to the Bee’s attack going forward.
Defender David McCracken and former Watford goalkeeper Richard Lee have also been brought in to boost Brentford’s defensive line. McCracken will likely start alongside Brentford favourite Kevin O’Connor, where as Richard Lee will be fighting to fill the void that Wojciech Szczesny left after returning to Arsenal following his very successful run at the club.
Brentford’s pre-season didn’t get off to the best start, their first pre-season game was against a manager-less Fulham side for Kevin O’Connor’s testimonial on July 14th, where the new look Bee’s side were hammered 5-0 by a simply brilliant Fulham side who at times passed their opposition to death. Tonbridge Angels were next on the agenda, and a 0-0 bore draw meant that Brentford still hadn’t scored. On July 20th, Griffin Park hosted recently relegated Wycombe Wonderers, and a better performance by the team was praised by Andy Scott, although the final score finished 1-1. Another loss in the pre-season next as the Bee’s went down to an eager Staines Town side 3-2, but in taking positives out of the game, the team were now scoring more, and confidence in front of goal was starting to pick up. Myles Weston and Nicky Forster were the heroes against Woking on July 27th, as between them they netter three goals (Weston got a brace, Forster scored one and set up one) in a 4-0 rout of the Blue Square South side.
Pre-season is mostly about fitness, and it is never an accurate way of looking at how a team is going to perform come the start of the season, as we saw last year when Newcastle were thumped 7-1 by Leyton Orient in pre-season and went on to roaring success in the Championship. Brentford will go to Carlisle on August 7th and aim to repeat the feat of last years 3-1 opening day win, but, with Andy Scott leading the way, Brentford have everything they need to mount a serious challenge for promotion.
