'Brentford Football Club' are an
English football club based in
Brentford in the
London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in
Football League Two.
They were founded in 1889 and play their home games at
Griffin Park, their home stadium since 1904. Brentford's most successful spell came during the 1930s, when they achieved consecutive top six finishes in the
First Division. Since the War, they have spent most of their time in the third and fourth tiers of English football. Brentford have been
FA Cup quarter-finalists on four occasions, and have twice been
Football League Trophy runners-up.
History
Foundation to 1939
Founded in 1889 to serve as a winter pursuit for the Brentford Rowing Club, the club spent its early years in the lower divisions of the
Football League and achieved little of note, save for a move to its present day home ground,
Griffin Park, in 1904. In 1921, it was a founder member of the Third Division South. During the late 1920s and 1930s, the club began to make real progress. In the
1929-30 season, the side won all 21 of its home matches in the
Third Division South (a record which still stands in
English football), but still missed out on promotion. After several more near-misses, promotion to the
Second Division was finally achieved in
1932-33. Two years later, Brentford reached the
First Division and finished 5th in its debut season - which is still the club's highest ever league position - to complete a remarkable rise for the club. Brentford achieved more impressive placings in the league for the rest of the decade (6th in the following two seasons) before the
Second World War interrupted.
1945-1989
During the war, Brentford competed in the
London War Cup, losing in the 1941 final at
Wembley Stadium to
Reading and winning in the final against
Portsmouth a year later. The club was
relegated in the first season after the War, and a downward spiral set in, which culminated in relegation to the Third Division in
1953-54 and the
Fourth Division in
1961-62. The survival of Brentford FC was threatened by a projected takeover by
Queens Park Rangers in the late 1960s - a bid that was only narrowly averted with an emergency loan of
£104,000 - while the club continued to yo-yo between the third and fourth divisions during the next three decades. The club won promotion in
1962-63,
1971-72 and
1977-78 but only on the final occasion was it able to consolidate its place in English football's third tier. Other bright spots in this period included reaching the final of the
Freight Rover Trophy at Wembley in
1985, where it lost to
Wigan, and a run to the
FA Cup quarter-finals in
1989 which included wins over three higher-division sides and was only ended by the reigning league champions
Liverpool.
1990 to present
After a 45-year absence, Brentford were promoted back to the
Second Division (renamed the
First Division with the advent of the
Premier League in 1992) in the
1991-92 season as
Third Division champions, though they were relegated again the following year.
There followed several seasons of the club narrowly missing out on promotion. Former
Chelsea FA Cup hero
David Webb was appointed manager in 1994 and twice led the side into the
play-offs. In
1996-97 he led them to the play-off final at Wembley, but the side were beaten by
Crewe Alexandra. The club were then relegated to the Third Division (by then the bottom division of the
Football League) the following year. Brentford won promotion as champions again in
1998-99 under manager and chairman
Ron Noades.
The club suffered more promotion agony in 2002 under manager
Steve Coppell as they lost out to
Stoke City in the play-off final having been just minutes away from automatic promotion on the final day of the season, and again under manager
Martin Allen in
2004-05, on that occasion losing 3-1 on aggregate to
Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals after finishing 4th in
League One.
Former
BBC Director-General and Bees fan
Greg Dyke was announced as chairman of Brentford on
20 January 2006 as part of the takeover by Bees United, the Brentford Supporters Trust. On
28 January 2006, Brentford beat
Premier League strugglers
Sunderland 2-1 in the 4th Round of the
FA Cup, but lost 3-1 to another Premier League club
Charlton Athletic in the 5th Round. Brentford finished 3rd in the league and lost to
Swansea City in the play-off semi-final.
On
30 May 2006 Allen announced his resignation as manager of Brentford
[1] and the club named
Leroy Rosenior as his successor on
14 June 2006. On
18 November 2006, following a run of 16 matches without a win - leaving the side in the relegation zone - Rosenior was sacked as manager, after the team lost 4-0 at home to Crewe. Following Rosenior's departure, youth team coach
Scott Fitzgerald was appointed manager on a full-time basis on 21 December 2006 with
Alan Reeves acting as his assistant.
[2] Fitzgerald was unable to turn around the club's fortunes, and Brentford were relegated to
Football League Two in April 2007. Fitzgerald left the day following confirmation of Brentford's relegation, with youth team manager Barry Quin due to act as caretaker in the managerial role until the end of the season.
[3]
On 18 April 2007,
The Sun newspaper reported that
Micky Adams was in line to return as manager, nine years after being sacked following relegation. Instead, former England captain
Terry Butcher was appointed as manager on
April 24. Butcher's assistant is former Brentford winger
Andy Scott, who was appointed on
May 9,
2007.
Stadium
Brentford have played at
Griffin Park since 1904, but since the late 1990s have been considering relocation. Plans were announced in October 2002 for a new 18,000-20,000-seat stadium at a state-of-the-art arena complex in Lionel Road, Brentford. It was announced at a fans forum that a bid had been made for the site although a reply hasn't been given. The ground is unique in British football in that there is a pub in each corner of Griffin Park, one of which is owned by the club.
In 2007 The Ealing Road end of the ground has had a roof installed after a grant by the Football Trust and makes all 4 stands of the ground covered. The Ealing Road remains a terrace but has been "given back" to home supporters and was re-opened for the first game of the season of the 2007/2008 season on Saturday 9th August 2007 against Mansfield Town.
Current first-team squad
''As of
August 31 2007:''
Players out on loan
Managers
''As of
29th August,
2007. Only competitive matches are counted.''
Notable players
:''See also: - a list of all Brentford F.C. players with a Wikipedia article.''
Famous former players include:
Honours
★ '
Football League First Division' (top tier)
★
★ Best finish: 5th (1935-6)
★ '
Football League Second Division' (second tier)
★
★ 'Champions': 1934-5
★ '
Football League Third Division' (third tier)
★
★ 'Champions': 1932-3 (then the
Third Division South), 1991-2
★ '
Football League Fourth Division' (fourth tier)
★
★ 'Champions': 1962-3, 1998-9 (by then known as the Third Division)
★ '
FA Cup'
★
★ Best performance: quarter-finals (1937-8, 1945-6, 1948-9, 1988-9)
★ '
League Cup'
★
★ Best performance: fourth round (1982-3)
★ '
Football League Trophy'
★
★ Best performance: runners-up (1984-5, 2000-1)
★ '
London War Cup'
★
★ 'Winners': 1941-2
★
★ Runners-up: 1940-1
★ '
Empire Exhibition Trophy'
★
★ Quarter-final: 1938
Mascot
Brentford FC's mascot is the ever-smiling Buzz Bee. Standing at 6 feet tall, he has black and yellow stripes and wears a Brentford FC club strip. He circles the ground before each game, and is a great hit with the kids who come to watch the matches.
Club Song
In 1993 the band One Touch To Go recorded the song Red On White for the team. The track can be found on the the album Greatest Hiss 1983/1999. The song has been played at the ground till at least 2002. And more recently the fans have adopted "
Hey Jude" by
The Beatles as the club tune, also the name of one of the club fanzines.
In 2001 Ex-Status Quo bassist
John 'Rhino' Edwards recorded a track called Brentford's Big Day Out after the Bees reached the final of the LDV Trophy at the
Millennium Stadium,
Cardiff.
Famous fans
★
Christopher Dawes
★
Cameron Diaz
★
Ryan Doye
★
John 'Rhino' Edwards
★
HARD-Fi lead singer Richard Archer
★
Dean Gaffney
★
Dominic Holland
★
Robert Rankin
★
The Bluetones guitarist Adam Devlin
★
★
Keith guitarist Mark Nicholls
★
Jim Carrey comedian
★
Hal Robson-Kanu Reading footballer
★
Bill Axeby 102 years old when he died life long fan
Club records
★ 'Record Victory:' 9-0 v
Wrexham,
Division 3,
15 October,
1963
★ 'Record Defeat:' 0-7 v
Swansea,
Division Three South,
8 November 1924
★ 'Most League Points (2 for a win):' 62,
Division Three South, 1932-1933
★ 'Most League Points (3 for a win):' 85,
Division 2, 1994-1995 &
Division 3, 1998-9
★ 'Most League Goals Scored in a season:' 98,
Division 4, 1962-1963
★ 'Most League Goals Conceded in a season:' 94,
Division Three South, 1925-26
★ 'Highest League Scorer in a season:'
Jack Holliday, 39, 1932-1933
★ 'Most League Goals in Total Aggregate:'
Jim Towers, 153, 1954-1961
★ 'Most Capped Player:'
John Buttigieg, 63,
Malta
★ 'Most League Appearances:'
Ken Coote, 514, 1949-1964
★ 'Record Transfer Fee Received:' £2,500,000 from
Wimbledon for
Hermann Hreiðarsson, October
1999
★ 'Record Transfer Fee Paid:' £750,000 to
Crystal Palace for
Hermann Hreiðarsson, September
1998
★ 'Highest home attendance:' 38,678 v
Leicester City,
26 February,
1949
★ 'Most league games without a win:' 18, September-December 2006
References
1. Allen resigns from Bees
2. Rosenior sacked as Brentford boss
3. Boss Fitzgerald leaves Brentford
External links
★
Beespedia
★
Official web site (part of the
Premium TV network of official web sites)
★
Bees United - The Brentford Supporters Trust
★
BIAS - Brentford Independent Association of Supporters
★
Griffin Park Grapevine - Griffin Park Grapevine
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