Brentford 1-0 Oldham

Brentford won their third home game in a row but at times made hard work of it.

Oldham started well but were soon pushed back as the bees took control of the game with good fluid football that we've come to expect recently. By the 17th minute the dominance had paid off when Forrester and Farid played Forshaw in to smash the ball into the net from just inside the box. Yes, Forrester, Farid and Forshaw, the three F's!

We continued to play and make chances, too numerous to mention - I think we had 18 by the end of the game. But the usual profligacy and good keeping kept the score down.

Oldham had a little flurry before half time leading Moore to pull off one of his trademark handsome saves.

The second half started with the bees again in control but started to go a little flat once Forshaw was replaced by Dave before the hour was up. Clearly Forshaw's abdominal injury precludes him from playing the full 90 minutes.

Oldham then came back into the game with their plan B: lump it up front! This worried us enough to put Legge on for Logan with Dean moving to right back giving us more height while Fredericks had replaced Donaldson to add cover in front of him. This set up handed the initiative to Oldham. We continued to bring everyone back for free kicks and corners and without an outlet ball to relieve the pressure it was at times one way traffic. Although we did occasionally get out and manage to create some decent chances ourselves on the break.

Fredericks looked very lively, fast and tricky - also effective with the ball creating some lovely chances. Moore had to pull off another great save to keep us ahead and finally we managed to see out the four minutes of added time.

There were some very good performances. I can't believe that Forshaw and Forrester are actually our players. Douglas was again all over the pitch often bursting late into the box - it's just a shame his finishing is often suspect. Craig had his best game for us simply by not making any errors. He also played a lovely crossfield ball to Forshaw who stopped it dead. Donaldson created some good chances for himself, the pick in the second half with some excellent work getting past the defenders and cutting in to shoot on target to the side of the keeper. Unfortunately the keeper was equal to it.

I expect Uwe will get a hammering for his tactics in response to Oldham's aerial bombardment but three points is three points. I'm sure he would have been criticised for not dealing with it too.


Moore; Logan (sub Legge 76 mins), Dean, Craig, Bidwell; Forshaw (sub Dave 57 mins), Douglas, Adeyemi, Forrester; Donaldson (sub Fredericks 71 mins), Farid

Subs (not used): Gounet, O`Connor, Saunders, Hayes

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