Brentford 1 Bradford 1

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Bees Held at Bradford

Brentford were denied a vital away win in the 92nd minute as Peter Thorne cancelled out Billy Clarke's strike. Fortunately only Exeter won out of the chasing pack....

Two gilt-edged chances in the first half, and Hamer made two excellent saves, match-saving saves in fact in the first half. The second half saw Bradford huff and puff but did little in front of goal. We looked to play on the counter, and the goal was brilliant.

If I looked at it objectively, I'd say that the draw was just about a fair result, but if you look at the second half only, we deserved a win. Regardless, we fought hard, we made our own chances, and the difference was that we have players with a bit of creativity and skill, rather than just relying on a big man up front.

Hamer - 9 - Two fantastic saves and safe throughout the game.
Osborne - 6 - Still, his passing is too simple and nervous, but defensively, he coped well.
Dickson - 7 - Solid and supported Wood very well.
Powell - 7 - Weird seeing him in a Brentford shirt, but still is aerially very good. Read the game well too, and did ok, despite it being a new partnership with Bennett.
Bennett - 8 - Imperious and excellent again.
Newton - 6 - Didn't really get into the game, but linked up ok, closed down the opposition well enough. I wish he had Marvin's pace though. He'd be an excellent player with genuine pace.
Wood - 7 - Busy, as usual. Always looking to capitalise on any mistakes and fought hard.
Hunt - 6 - Busy performance and defensively sound.
Bean - 7 - Put in some telling tackles, but his distribution sometimes was lacking.
Clarke - 7 - Great goal and a busy performance where his footwork clearly gets him out of trouble. Skillful and a handful. From that performance, I'd sign him up.
Spencer - 7 - A proper grafter in the Elder mould, but perhaps better than Elder with the ball at his feet. A handful, fought for the ball, and Bradford defenders will not have enjoyed playing against him.
Sam Williams was the only sub (on for Clarke in 84th minute), and he looked lively, and intelligent. I personally like him alot, but haven't seen him in our last two games.

As said, definitely 2 points dropped, but clearly, if we are going through a bad patch, we are doing ok, considering the new personnel. At least the team fought hard, played with some genuine skill at times, and with other teams bricking it, I do think that we will have enough to see us through.

553 Bees fans, apparently, in a 12,800 crowd. Seemed like more of us and I believe that they had anticipated less of us. Good vocals from us at times too.

Beesotted's Billy The Bee was also at the match and claims that we were robbed - and that Clarke was very impressive up front. Kevin O'Connor travelled up with the squad apparently, but Glenn Poole appeared to be nowhere to be seen

Thanks to Leicester Bee and beesotted for the match report

April 8, 2009