Stop number 8 on the tour of London's league football grounds saw Dean and his friend Zac trip out to Brentford in West London. Having earlier this season seen Brentford away to Leyton Orient, Zac proclaimed them his favourite London team.
The visitors were Gillingham. Being based nearby in Kent meant they filled a large part of their stand, and contributed to a pretty exciting atmosphere even though the crowd was only just over 6,000. The crowd was close to the pitch which was great at half time with the crowd chanting "getting sacked in the morning" at the Gillingham manager due to the 3-0 scoreline, and throwing bottles etc! One crazy fan was even waving his shoe at the opposition fans.
Wajciech Szczesny, the Brentford goalkeeper, is currently on loan from Arsenal and was in particularly good form. Given the current poor form of Alminia and Fabianski at Arsenal, he could be featuring there in the next couple of years - he will need to beef up a little bit though - he's as skinny as I was!
Livening up the game, we put some ££s on - including picking some scores, with 3-0 being the last option live at halftime. Not a great way to spend the second half - wishing for no goals. Luckily there was only one chance, and unlcukily it went in off the back of the Gillingham goalies bonce. Arrgh the 13-1 pick of 3-0 down the drain.
Stadium was pretty average - no allocated seats, and pretty tight leg room wise, in fact impossible to sit normally, lucky really it wasn't at fullcapacity, and the stand had a number of poles obsurcing the view. Food seemed to be a standard range, but the ground only had a minimal number of programme sellers. To be fair, Brentford were promoted last season, and have plans for a new stadium so there is some lee-way there.
Not a bad day out, not too cold for the middle of winter.
So that is stop 8 down. The remaining grounds are Tottenham, West Ham, QPR, Watford, Crystal Palace and Dagenham and Redbridge.
The visitors were Gillingham. Being based nearby in Kent meant they filled a large part of their stand, and contributed to a pretty exciting atmosphere even though the crowd was only just over 6,000. The crowd was close to the pitch which was great at half time with the crowd chanting "getting sacked in the morning" at the Gillingham manager due to the 3-0 scoreline, and throwing bottles etc! One crazy fan was even waving his shoe at the opposition fans.
Wajciech Szczesny, the Brentford goalkeeper, is currently on loan from Arsenal and was in particularly good form. Given the current poor form of Alminia and Fabianski at Arsenal, he could be featuring there in the next couple of years - he will need to beef up a little bit though - he's as skinny as I was!
Livening up the game, we put some ££s on - including picking some scores, with 3-0 being the last option live at halftime. Not a great way to spend the second half - wishing for no goals. Luckily there was only one chance, and unlcukily it went in off the back of the Gillingham goalies bonce. Arrgh the 13-1 pick of 3-0 down the drain.
Stadium was pretty average - no allocated seats, and pretty tight leg room wise, in fact impossible to sit normally, lucky really it wasn't at fullcapacity, and the stand had a number of poles obsurcing the view. Food seemed to be a standard range, but the ground only had a minimal number of programme sellers. To be fair, Brentford were promoted last season, and have plans for a new stadium so there is some lee-way there.
Not a bad day out, not too cold for the middle of winter.
So that is stop 8 down. The remaining grounds are Tottenham, West Ham, QPR, Watford, Crystal Palace and Dagenham and Redbridge.
