Brentford vs Crystal Palace 22/23

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all well.

On Saturday 18th February 2023 Palace made the trip across London to face Brentford in a 3pm KO.

Despite living just 30 minutes from the Brentford Community Stadium at university, I made the trip from South London, so the journey was almost triple what it would’ve been 😅.

I had been to Brentford before but we was in both a different car park (which was very confusing to find) and different seat. The seat was similar to mine at Selhurst where we sat on pitch side, but to my right there was a big concrete wall in the way so I couldn’t position my chair how I normally would and due to my restricted neck movement couldn’t see some of the pitch at the other end or had to support my head with my hand. I guess for other disabled people with more movement it would’ve been an okay seat, and there were no fans in front that could get in the way, but for me personally it wasn’t great and I probably wouldn’t choose to sit there again.

Before the game there was an arranged visit between the two clubs disabled liaison officers for me to meet a Brentford fan named Woody. Woody and Brentford FC have created a scene where he ‘welcomes’ disabled fans from visiting clubs to enhance inclusivity, we did a player-style shirt swap where he was given a Crystal Palace classic red and blue shirt with his name on, and the gesture was returned. Please read more about it on Woody’s own blog, I thought it was a great idea and am thankful to be a part of it - https://www.woodywelcomes.com/

Palace came into the game still without their first win of 2023 with Brentford having a strong campaign sitting 7th in the table. The Bee’s managed to get recent convincing victories over Southampton, Bournemouth, Liverpool, West Ham, evening picking up draws against Tottenham and Arsenal so full of confidence.

Patrick Vieira made two changes to the line-up compared to the 1-1 draw over Brighton just last week. These saw Andersen and Lokonga come in to replace Tomkins and Hughes, with the latter making his first start for the club. Chris Richards also featured back on the bench after missing a game with an injury.

In a London derby full of physical battles and tactical fouls, substitute Ebere Eze’s opener was cancelled out by a Vitaly Janelt last minute goal seeing the teams leave with one point apiece.

Although they came into the game underdogs it was Palace who had more possession in the opening stages. Despite this it was Brentford who had the first opportunity through Christian Norgaard who narrowing out the ball wide of Vicente Guaita post.

The home side created multiple chances, including a shot just going wide of the post from Bryan Mbeamo after a weaving run towards goal, but none that caused any real worry for Guaita.

Even though Palace were looking to create chances their only significant one of the half came from a Michael Olise edge of the box shot, it stung the hands of David Raya as he forced it over the bar with a good strong save keeping the scores level going into the break.

The second half saw Jefferey Schlupp put a headed effort just past the near post, just minutes after an Ivan Toney penalty appeal which was rightly waved away.

Norgaard came close to breaking the deadlock with a volleyed effort from outside the boy, but Guaita successfully held onto the ball.

Both managers made an array of changes in the closing stages, with Patrick Vieira bringing on some creativity in Odsonne Edouard and Ebere Eze. The latter made the game changing impact, after being on the pitch for just six minutes he netted the opening goal sending the away end into a frenzy! A well worked team goal (including the goal scorer in the build-up) ended with Eze making a great late run and finding the net with his head after being cleverly picked out by Olise for his fourth goal of the season.

The Englishman brought great energy to the game taking on players down the left wing.

The away side came very close to extending their lead with shots from substitutes Edouard and Naouirou Ahamada, with the latter putting his effort just wide of the post. By this point the entire front three of Palace had been changed from how it begun.

The bee’s heads didn’t drop as they searched for the equaliser putting the Palace defence under a lot of pressure. Disappointing Palace became complacent and failed to close the space allowing Brentford to have full control of the game as the time ran down, and they were punished.

A 96th minute goal from Vitaly Janelt denied the Eagles their first win of 2023; how there was six minutes of additional time I do not know, but from a Palace perspective the goal was purely down poor closing down and is definitely something that needs to be looked at by the coaching staff.

As soon as the game restarted the final whistle blew, the teams shared the points once again making it the fourth consecutive match without either team winning.

The trip home was almost double what it was on the way there, but I guess that’s the beauty of an away day 😬. The next game I am attending is Liverpool at home on the 25th of February, so look out for that post :)

Thank you for reading.

Ellie Xx