Brentford's first game against Fulham took place three days before Christmas Day in 1928 at Griffin Park, their home since 1094. Fulham won that encounter 1-2.

The sides have met in 58 games including that pre-Christmas clash, the record books show that it's pretty even, Fulham have won 21, Brentford have been victorious on 20 occasions and we've drawn 17.

The match on December 14 will be the last time that we'll be able to visit Brentford at Griifn Park as they relocate their new stadium when this season is over.

Not much to say about this game apart from stating the obvious that it was yet another miserable away result. Fulham have kept to their recent form and completely underperformed of late and this game was merely another instalment in that sequence.

Scotty Parker started the game with three changes to the line-up that kicked off in the previous game at Deepdale withTom Cairney returning after his recent illness, Neeskens Kebano replaced Anthony Knockaert and Denis Odoi who was red carded against Preston was replaced by Joe Bryan.

The first 10 minutes were decidedly nervy and Neeskens hit the post but generally it was looking to be a tight and even game. Brentford gradually edged forward and by 20 minutes were increasingly looking the more likely to score.

And so it proved two minutes later, with Mawson easily muscled out of it by Watkins who feeding Mbeumo, in turn slicing past Rodak to opine the scoring, disaster! I hate to blame individuals but Alfie is having a none too impressive season this time round, having said that the whole team are so inconsistent overall, goodness knows how the coaching staff can get them all meshing at their best.

Seven minutes after their goal, the home side nearly made it 2-0 when a shot by Watkins came back off the post to Dasilva whose attempt at an almost unguarded goal went wide. Christie and Kebano combined to feed Mitro who was just beaten to Neesken’s header by the Bee’s keeper Raya, it was a cause for hope though, nothing more, as it was Brentford who pressed forward and again struck the post just before the half ended.

Five minutes into the second half, Christie had a pop which seemed to wake up the Brentford keeper who easily saved the attempt. It was largely Brentford asking all the questions now and were the only side threatening either’s goal in the next 35 minutes. Indeed, it was not until ten minutes from the final whistle that sub Bobby Decordova -Reid had a half chance but Knockaert’s cross sailed just over his attempt to meet it with his head. Knockaert had replaced Kebano on 69 minutes, Johansen having left the pitch for AK five minutes earlier.

Effectively the match just fizzled out, Fulham looked clueless and Brentford had no need for urgency, they had done a good job on our faltering team. Another weirdly toothless display from Fulham, at least we are still in touch with the other teams around us but automatic promotion feels as far away as a Prime Minister called Jeremy.

We're back now almost to the point before the first of our four wins on the trot, all but balanced out by the third consecutive defeat.

No point in ading to the woes but at this rate we'll be looking fearfully over our shoulders if we can't get back on track.

It was apparent that after those 3 wins, some of them somewhat fortuitious, that the exalted third place we occupied seemed somewhat unrealistic and that we were still there prior to the Brentford game at least gave us a little encouragement.

After the last two defeats though we have managed to stay in touch with all but the top two so providing that this blip proves to be just, that we might just make it into the new year with the prospect of repeating our promotion season antics.

If we lose at Griffin park, it will hardly be a surprise and as long as it finalises our downturn and gets us pointed in the right direction it maight well be ok.

After all we took 4 streps forward before any we hit the downward trend and took two step back, we can afford a third, then a sideways step against Leeds before we light the after burners an get back to winiing. Well I can dream surely!