Football Days

Griffin Park - Brentford FC

Brentford 0-0 Shrewsbury Town

02/10/12 - League One

Att: 4,384

With nothing else to do and a full list of Football League fixtures I decided to take in a game, opting to make the short trip to Griffin Park to see Brentford's League One clash with Shrewsbury Town. I've visited the ground twice in the past, but was looking forward to returning to a ground that I've always enjoyed visiting.

I had originally planned to catch an earlier train, but I'm completely addicted to New Star Soccer on my phone and sat in bed playing it all afternoon, meaning that by the time I got myself together and drove to the station I was being pushed for time. There was the inevitable delay to the train before a change at Clapham Junction, a station that I always struggle to navigate around. Thankfully I saw a guy in a Brentford shirt so I followed him like a bad smell to the connection train. Maybe sitting next to the poor soul on the train was a step too far, but I wanted to make sure I was going the right way.

Before long the train arrived in Brentford, with the silhouette of terraced houses against the glow of four floodlight pylons that lit up the sky greeting me as I stepped off the train. It was a wet and windy night, but thankfully the ground is just a short walk away. I had a look around the outside of the ground, with the narrow streets and terraced houses that surrounded it reminding me very much of the area that surrounds Loftus Road. There was a really snug feel to the place and much more preferable to a stadium built in the middle of a retail park. Griffin Park is famous for having a pub on every corner, but due to the fact that I had my car at Farnborough station and I didn't have a great deal of time I wasn't able to have a pint in each of them as I would have liked. I was, however, very interested in finding some food but that appeared to be quite a difficult task, with just the one Chinese takeaway along Brook Road seemingly around.

Having purchased and then consumed a bag of chips from the Chinese I went into the ground with kick off approaching. I'd opted to stand behind the goal with the Brentford supporters on the Ealing Road End, so after paying in I made my way on to the terrace and found a spot. With Champions League football on the telly, plus the fact that it was a wet, cold and miserable night the crowd was quite sparse and there was plenty of room on the terrace.

Brentford have played at Griffin Park since it was built in 1904 and it really is a rare breed of football ground, oozing character everywhere you look. At the far end was the Brook Road Stand - A two tiered stand with terracing at the bottom and seating at the top. It has a capacity of 1,850 and houses the away supporters. One thing I did notice about the stand is where they'd written "Brentford FC" in the seats. It's a nice idea, but the application leaves a lot to be desired with a stare case pretty much removing the letter D from the club's name. Having stood at that end on my previous two visits I found the view from the terraced area to not be great, but the acoustics when with a large away following are superb. On my right was the Bill Axbey Stand, which is a reasonably sized one tiered all seated stand. There are a number of supporting pillars holding up the roof, which featured a large sponsor for a Qatari airline due to the ground being located under the Heathrow flight path. The Braemar Road Stand is on the opposite side and is a decent sized seated stand, which is quite steep and close to the pitch which creates a very tight feel to the ground. The Ealing Road End is a one tiered terrace which had a roof added to it in 2007. It's the only stand in the ground that doesn't have supporting pillars and as a result the view of the match was excellent.

This is Brentford's fourth season back in the third tier after winning the League Two title in 2008/09. Since coming back to this level they've slotted in quite comfortably, finishing 9th, 11th and 9th again last season - Six points shy of the play offs. They also went to Wembley in 2011, losing the JPT final to Carlisle United. Uwe Rosler is enjoying his second season in charge of The Bees and will be looking to build on a steady first season at the club. Three wins, four draws and two defeats from their opening nine games reflected a steady start to the new season and they went into this game against the newly promoted Shrews on the back of a last gasp equaliser at league leaders Tranmere Rovers.

The teams entered the field both wearing their traditional home colours, with Brentford in red and white and Shrewsbury in yellow and blue. There were a reasonable number of away supporters at the far end of the ground as the game got underway, with the visitors making the brighter start. As the home side settled down it became more of an even contest, but chances were at a premium throughout the first 45 minutes. Shrewsbury came closest to breaking the deadlock half way through the first half but Brentford keeper Simon Moore made a good save to keep the game level. I found the atmosphere to be quite subdued during the first 45 minutes, showing that just because a ground has terracing it doesn't always mean a louder crowd.

Thankfully the second half was much brighter with The Bees flying out of the blocks and putting the visitors under a lot of pressure, which in turn lifted the home crowd. While they enjoyed a lot of possession the Shrewsbury goal was rarely threatened, with Clayton Donaldson not enjoying the finest match of his career. At the far end it looked as if we'd finally see a goal when Marvin Morgan's shot hit the arm of the Brentford defender and a penalty was awarded, but after consulting with the linesman the referee changed his mind and awarded The Shrews a corner instead, much to the outrage of the visiting fans, but to the relief of those stood around me. Moments later it looked as if Brentford had taken the lead when Paul Hayes poked the ball home, only for the linesman's flag to cut short any celebrations.

It was a frantic finish to the game as chances came and went at both ends. Terry Gornell's effort smacked back off the cross bar for Shrewsbury and then Clayton Donaldson missed a golden chance for Brentford. It was remarkable that the game finished 0-0 after chances galore at both ends in the second half, but a draw was certainly a fair result from what was a very even contest. However I came away thinking that 2-2 would have been a much fairer reflection on the way the game was played.

After leaving the ground I made the short walk back to the station and caught the train back home, changing at Clapham Junction again and pulling into Farnborough around 11pm. Although the weather was awful and the game was goalless I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and one of the most characteristic grounds in the Football League. It's a ground I'd happily return to and a trip that I would highly recommend.