For Brentford, there was a measure of relief. It’s probably fair to say that the one-game winning streak in the nine games they went into this weekend wasn’t representative of how they’ve been playing but, still, it’s too early to assume that. They are passing that they are passing. A mid-winter breakdown like last season. Survival is not quite mathematically assured but breaking the 30-point mark with 15 games to go ensures they will be in the Premier League next season.
After a slow start, the game got the better of the conditions. It was an afternoon of really nasty weather, a raw morning with heavy rain, a blustery wind, and a gray sky without a trace. It was an afternoon thankful for modern drainage, the pitch was left slick and green. With Brentford in a blancmange-pink and aubergine-eve kit that evokes a once-brilliant bathroom in a bejeweled bedseat in which terrible things have happened from an ’80s crime drama, the overall effect is almost artistic darkness. was of, a sort of Croydon noir.
At the heart of all true noir is a sense of the world as an inexorable bureaucratic machine that inevitably crushes all human endeavour. And so it was that the game turned on a five-minute period of strike-based drama midway through the second half. Although the Palace fans were encouraged, these decisions were all, ultimately, probably correct, even if they were not necessarily made at an earlier age. It started with Mark Gouhe breaking a clearance at Will Hughes, who threw his hands to protect his face. It probably would have eventually been awarded as a penalty anyway, but Max Lacroix then grabbed Nathan Collins’ shin as he dived for the bouncing ball. Referee Tony Harrington awarded the penalty, and VR official Darren England confirmed his decision.
Brian Mambimo’s kick, though, hit the post and, as Gueye was cleared, Palace seemed to have got away with it. Although a Ware check showed that Gueye had been fouled before taking the kick and so Mbemo had another chance – Ware’s innovation and D’s 1937 innovation in 1937 to Palace at the top of the area. Declaring null and void. (Whether the Norwegian club will vote to abolish D is still unclear). Oddly enough, since no other player had touched the ball, Mambimo would not have been able to play it again, and so Goy didn’t have to clear it. The second time, Mbuemo dived past Dan Henderson to his right and killed off the penalty the other way around.
One soon became two. With his brow, inpointed widow’s peak, follower and general air of tumultuous swagger, there’s something alchemy about Mikkel Damsgaard, forever on the brink of some earth-shattering discovery. And yet it has never been entirely certain that it has not attracted unwanted attention. Of Church Authorities. He had been a frustrating figure in the first half, but with 10 minutes to go in the second, his scattering magic down the right created room for a cross that Kevin Schad headed past Henderson.
Palace, who were on a losing streak in 11 league games, are in a similar position to Brentford: almost certainly safe and not innovative enough to qualify for Europe. Jean-Philippe Mettata was at his best after a post-Olympic slump, his early Abercrombie pouncing on Will Hughes’ low pass to add his fifth in as many games, Mark Flicken scoring a superb finish. Made a save, but that promise was never delivered. Meta held the ball in a dangerous situation, worked the line well, but without being able to convert a potential threat into something else. Everything of creative note that Mahal went through Eze and after he was trapped 12 minutes into the second half, his free-kick cleared Sepp van den Berg into the wall and was deflected against the base of the post.
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It was Eze, inevitably, who created them, his deep cross finding Daniel Moves, whose goal-bound ball was headed in by 19-year-old substitute Romain Sasse, a £14.5 million move from Millwall. Made his first film after the initiative of This led to some late pressure from Palace but apart from a free-kick, Brentford were pretty safe. At least the clouds have parted for them.
