Notts County 1 - 2 Brentford

Brentford pulled off another dramatic late win to beat Notts County at Meadow Lane.

A good County side flew out of the blocks, chased us down and used the channels well to create chances and take the lead after 20 minutes. During that period Donaldson had a one-on-one chance with the keeper who did well to deflect the shot wide of the post. County's wingers were doing much of the damage getting good balls into the bees box and it was one such ball which Tony Craig tried to wallop clear but misjudged and it flew off the side of his boot into the net. I've lost count of how many OGs Craig has scored since arriving in the summer!

The bees then slowly started to get in the game with neat, quick passing outdoing County's chasing. Forshaw was at the hub of everything at the time and was keen to burst forward at every opportunity. One such occasion led to the bees first goal when Trotta played a nice ball into space for Forshaw to run onto, burst into the box and lash it into the far corner past the keeper.

The bees were into the ascendancy now and controlled the game up to half time.

The second half saw the bees in control for much of it and created many chances but couldn't get the ball into the net. Notts County were basically playing like an away team and looking for the break but after about 75 mins they had a dangerous 5 minute spell creating three decent chances until normal service was resumed.

With two minutes to go a short corner led to the ball being lumped into the 6 yard box and Clayton rose highest to bundle the ball across the line. Cue delirium in the Jimmy Sirrell stand! Was it really only 600 bees fans that made all that noise and partied until the final whistle? Amazing scenes. It's what away days were meant for.

The bees saw out the remaining minutes with comfort.

It's hard to pick out any one outstanding performer but Forshaw, Bidwell and Trotta did some great work.

I don't know what to make of County, clearly a good side with some talented players but I suppose with the wingers they have and the choice of Iwelumo or Showumni upfront playing on the break at home is an option but one that didn't work against the bees.

The Bees play Bradford on Tuesday in a cup replay with the prize of an away trip to Southend and possible progress into the 4th round and a big draw. Or more importantly, Stevenage on Saturday with the Pay what you can promotion. Apparently well over 5,000 cut price tickets have already been sold so we should be hoping for a bumper crowd. So a good performance and result will give all bees fans a very happy Christmas.

Moore; Logan, Dean, Craig, Bidwell; Douglas, Kiernan (sub Adeyemi h/t); Donaldson, Forshaw, Forrester; Trotta (sub Hayes 90 mins)

Subs (not used): Lee, Hodson, Legge, Reeves, Saunders, Hayes

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