Football League Cup
3rd Round
Tuesday 21st September 2021
Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.47
Brentford 7 Oldham Athletic 0, attendance 12,819
3′ 1-0 M. Forss (pen)
16’ 2-0 M Forss
38’ 3-0 Y. Wissa
43’ 4-0 R. Diarra (OG)
44’ 5-0 M. Forss
60’ 6-0 M. Forss
87’ 7-0 Y. Wissa
@ Brentford Community Stadium
166 Lionel Road North
Brentford
TW8 9QT
£10 Admission, Print at Home ticket
£2 Programme, fold out poster style, didn’t bother buying.
It was as far back as 31st December 1988 that I made my only visit to Griffin Park for football, when I saw Brentford 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 in a Football League Division 3 match in front of 8,020 spectators. I returned on 17th September 1995, this time for rugby league, seeing London Broncos defeat Leeds 26-12 in a Division 1 match, where the crowd was 3,576. It was a ‘proper’ ground, the like of which are now disappearing, as clubs look to move to more modern facilities. It oozed character and was typical of the type of grounds that were so common back in 1990, when I first completed a visit to see a match at all 92 clubs in the Football League. Sadly, the ground is no longer. It was knocked down a few months back, in readiness for the builders to move in.
This season has seen the move to the brand new Brentford Community Stadium, which is just under a mile from Griffin Park, further east towards London. The capacity here is 17,250, which at the time of planning was probably thought to be perfectly adequate, but they simply wouldn’t have envisaged starting life at their new home as a Premier League club. When inside, it feels very small and gives the impression that it is more like a ground of only around 10,000 capacity. I think the ground would have looked much nicer on the eye if the seats had been done in the red, white and black club colours, rather than the random hotch potch design that they have gone for. Perhaps that’s why it feels so small.
With Brentford’s move to the new stadium coinciding with their debut in the Premier League, it meant tickets would be very hard to obtain. However, the League Cup invariably throws up an opportunity to pick up tickets quite easily, often at a discounted price, especially when the big boys are drawn at home to one of the lower division sides. In fact, you can’t get any lower than Oldham Athletic, currently propping up the entire Football League, as they sit bottom of League 2, having taken just four points from their opening eight matches. It is hard to believe that Oldham played in the inaugural season of the Premier League, back in 1992/93 season, where they finished fourth from bottom in the table, surviving relegation by the skin of their teeth.
I had no qualms doing this match, knowing full well that Brentford would make wholesale changes from their win at Wolves on Saturday. It made no difference to me anyway, as apart from Ivan Toney, I couldn’t name another player of Brentford’s first team squad. After just three minutes, it became apparent that the only player I’d heard of before tonight, wouldn’t be making an appearance, even though he was named as a substitute, as Finnish striker Marcus Forss put Brentford 1-0 up from the penalty spot and it was game over already. There was to be no cup upset. Oldham were totally overwhelmed, in as one sided a half as you are likely to see. By halftime it was 5-0, with Forss completing his hat trick, adding to a strike by Yoane Wissa and an own goal. On the hour mark Forss smashed in his fourth goal of the night, in off the underside of the crossbar, before Wissa completed the rout, with the goal of the night, scoring a superb bicycle kick to make it 7-0.
I had parked at the north end of Lionel Road North, in Rose Gardens, where parking restrictions finish at 15.00 in midweek. It was a brisk fifteen minute walk to the ground from here. I exited the West Stand at 21.40 and was back home just 70 minutes later.
