Griffin Park: From Fortress to Minefield
- essentialbrentford
- Sep 10, 2015
- 2 min read
Brentford set an English football record when they won all 21 home games during the 1929–30 Third Division South season. Despite the record (which still stands), the Bees finished as runners-up to Plymouth Argyle and failed to win promotion to Second Division.
In recent years, Griffin Park has earnt back it's status of "Fortress". Brentford finished the 2014 calendar year with the best home record in the entirity of the Football League, winning 17 of 23 games (two more than the next-best tally) and accruing a 78% winning record.
This record is even more astounding when one considers that Brentford were playing in the Championship for half of this year, previously unchartered ground and up against much stronger opposition than we were used to.
As for the stadium itself, numerous improvements were made after Brentford's promotion to the Championship in 2014, including resurfacing of access areas, extra CCTV, new signage, new heated seats in the dugouts and AstroTurf installed in the pitch-side run-off areas.
However, in recent months Griffin Park has become less of a safe haven and more of a field of uncertainty for the Bees, who have relied more heavily on Away results and have arguably been more impressive away from home.
Towards the back end of last season our home form deteriorated, leaving us with just one win from our last six games (that coming against Wigan on the all-important last day of the season).
We slumped to draws against teams such as Bolton and Wigan who we would have defeated comfortably earlier in the season. This form has continued into the new campaign and begs the question as to why Griffin Park, which has become such a fortress over the last few years, now does not offer the same assurance of a win as it used to.
Well, many have suggested that the size of the pitch does not suit our free-flowing, passing game. We like to play good football and use the wings as much as possible, with our full-backs pressing forward in orser to provide overlaps on either side.
The small nature of our pitch makes it harder to achieve this at Griffin Park than it does at away grounds (we achieved great success against Bristol City at Ashton Gate when three of our four goals were results of crosses into the box).
Additionally, the heavily documented state of the Griffin Park pitch at the beginning of this season made it hard to play to our strengths, although these problems have hopefully been resolved.
If the club is to launch a successful campaign this season then good home form is necessary. At the end of this season it is vital that Brentford have not slipped too far behind last season's record of twelve wins (most of them coming in the first half of the season) and that we have made some progress into turning Griffin Park back into a fortress.
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