Matchday blog – Brentford vs Millwall 19/10/19
Match number 467: Brentford vs Millwall, Saturday 19th October 2019
I was lucky enough to get hold of a ticket to this match after a friend couldn’t make it to yesterday’s game and headed up to Griffin Park with two friends.
I’ve been to Griffin Park twice before but with Aldershot but never seen us win and it’s a nice old-fashioned ground. My grandad used to go to matches there as a boy and there have probably only a few alterations made to it since then!
This is Brentford’s last season at their home since 1904 before they move to a fancy new all-seater stadium several miles away.
My friends are Millwall season ticket holders and so I was in the away end on the small section of terracing in the lower tier of the away stand.
Before going into the ground however, there was the small matter of visiting the four landmarks around the ground.
An often quoted piece of trivia about Griffin Park is that there is a pub on each corner of the ground. Having arrived in Brentford a little more than two hours before kick off with the intention of visiting a couple of the pubs in question, we knew that we would have time to visit at least two.
We decided that it would probably be quieter at the pubs up outside the Brentford end of the ground.
The two pubs up at that end were the The New Inn and The Princess Royal where we finished our beers in quick fashion.
I then sourced a programme seller for my customary programme before we moved on down the road running parallel with the touchline of the pitch towards the away end.
I then sourced a programme seller for my customary programme before we moved on down the road running parallel with the touchline of the pitch towards the away end.
The New Inn and The Princess Royal (left to right) behind the Brentford home end
The Griffin and The Brook behind the away end. The Griffin was where the Millwall fans had adopted as their pub
We still had an hour until kick off so went to The Griffin which was full of Millwall fans. This was a bit ironic as this pub was chosen to be used in Green Street, a film about Millwall’s main rivals West Ham!
A lot of negative things are heard in the press about Millwall fans but I didn’t see any trouble at all yesterday. In fact, the abundance of Met Police were just left standing around with nothing to do!
The fans all mixed together and were talking together with no problems at all.
We completed the quartet with a quick trip to The Brook, the only one of the four pubs not to serve Foster’s, my drink of choice.
We quickly then headed off and got into the away end, a very small stand known by the Brentford fans as the The Wendy House (according to Wikipedia!).
My view from the terraces yesterday
We were stood in the shallow terracing in the lower tier and above us were a few rows of seating in the upper tier. It was quite claustrophobic and dark where we stood in the terracing as the upper tier hung over us only a few metres overhead!
The home side were wearing a commemorative blue and gold shirt instead of their usual red and white stripes.
This was because they wore a shirt with the same colours on when they beat Millwall in 1904 to record their first win since moving to Griffin Park.
The game kicked off and Brentford were on top and dictated the play.Their first real chance hit the inside of the far post in the 12th minute.
The home side were awarded a penalty on 24 minutes after a Millwall defender dragged a Brentford player down in the area off the ball as a corner was floated in.
Ollie Watkins hit the penalty hard and low but Millwall keeper Batosz Bialkowski got down and saved the penalty.
Millwall then took the lead in added time at the end of the first half and it was totally against the run of play.
After half time, Brentford pressed for an equaliser and had a goal disallowed for offside. A few moments later Jed Wallace scored a second for Millwall from the penalty spot at our end.
Despite being 2-0 down, Brentford plugged away and pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 on 84 minutes. They did deserve the goal for their hard work and four minutes later, The Bees grabbed an equaliser.
A draw would probably have been a fair result for both teams but there was still to be another goal in the game.
The Millwall payers looked nervous on the ball and in the last of the four minutes injury time, Brentford scored a winner.
The three sides of the ground holding the Brentford fans were louder than they had been for the whole match and many of the Millwall fans walked out at this point!
The away fans had been very loud throughout the game and the Brentford fans were only really heard when they scored.
It was a great game and was something to remember at my last trip to Griffin Park.
Yesterday’s retro design on the front cover of the programme and golden ticket
as part of the Farewell to Griffin Park for their last season at their ground
About Author
