Brentford Bees lose their FA Cup sting.

Brentford Bees lose their FA Cup sting.

This was Brentford's last ever FA Cup match at their cosy and compact Griffin Park ground. Brentford have always remained firmly rooted in football's backwaters, never really challenging the big boys at any time in their history and just trapped in one of those obscure cul de sacs where nobody takes a great deal of notice of you and the neighbours just ignore you because somehow you're socially inferior to them. Poor Brentford. It doesn't really seem fair.

It's hard to believe now but Brentford once rubbed shoulders with the so called titled classes of the old First Division. Just after the Second World War Brentford, for whom England's once prolific striker Tommy Lawton spent his twilight years with, were fraternising with the upper classes of the top flight, a side not exactly to be reckoned with but still respected at the time. Football, at the time, was still recovering from the hellish depredations of war and trying desperately to recover from the twisted wreckage of broken lives, families, buildings and homes.

But, for one of London's lesser known teams the lunchtime kick off against confident and frequently stylish Premier League high fliers Leicester City proved a positive bellwether of what Brentford might find they're up against should they secure promotion to the Premier League next season. At the moment they're floating promisingly in the top six of the Championship and their Danish manager Thomas Frank has built a forward thinking and progressive team in the League's second tier.

Yet here we were at the only football team in the whole of Britain that boasts four pubs on every corner of the ground, a fact that may or may not be well documented. In this FA Cup fourth round tie, Brentford looked distinctly punch drunk but by the end of this moderately intoxicating game, they'd more or less sobered up.

Throughout the ages Griffin Park, shortly to be demolished so that Brentford can move into their new home next season, has always looked very snug and happy rather like its bibulous boozers. The rickety stands and terraces are beginning to creak and groan quite ominously although as pointed out Griffin Park stood intact in the face of Hitler's punishing bombardment. Now the time has come for Brentford to move onto greener pastures although, like their London neighbours, this may take some getting used to.

This time the lower class proletarians of Brentford were eventually shown the exit door of this year's FA Cup despite some spirited resistance in the second half. Sadly though they simply couldn't break down Leicester's wall of stubbornness. a well organised squadron of blue shirts who may find that Liverpool can't be caught in the Premier League title chase. Instead Leicester have switched their focus to the FA Cup, a competition in which they have lost the Final on three occasions when Spurs overcame them in 1961, Manchester United just swept them aside in 1963 and neighbours City narrowly beat them six years later.

So here was the incentive for Leicester to make up for lost time. Four years have now passed since the ever smiling Claudio Ranieri led the Foxes to the Premier League title. Since then there was the tragic helicopter crash which killed their owners, a general levelling out in their performances and an acceptance of the fact that both the club and its supporters may never witness such mammoth achievements again in the immediate future although you never know.

Still when the ever dependable Wes Morgan found himself capable of linking up proficiently with James Justin, Christian Fuchs and the rock solid Caglar Soyuncu, Leicester knew that they could count on all of the most essential tools to peel back the layers of Brentford's stage struck team. With Hamza Choudury, a consistently responsible and intelligent influence, Dennis Praet, scheming and creating productively in the heart of Leicester's well stocked midfield, the Premier League side were opening up Brentford with some of the neatest and well constructed football Leicester have played since the heyday of Claudio Ranieri.

Further forward there were yet more eye catching displays from full back Marc Allbrighton, surging dangerously forward on the overlap and always willing to lend a helping hand to Leicester's now smoothly flowing attack. Demarai Gray is yet another one of England's blooming youngsters who may find that England manager Gareth Southgate will find hard to resist at Euro 2020. Here Gray was full of the unpredictable, a player of spellbinding sorcery, lovely ball control at close quarters and a natural aptitude for doing the simple things at the right time. Gray was here, there and everywhere.

When the superbly brilliant Ayoze Perez found his footing and started leading Brentford a merry dance, the home side were living on borrowed time. Perez was quick, elusive and a striker of predatory instincts, dragging Brentford one way and then the other. With every game Perez is beginning to look  the genuine article and there was a moment during the game when Leicester didn't really miss the direct and lethal Jamie Vardy.

The game's only goal of the game came from Kelechi Ineancho, a straightforward and yet classically executed movement that seemed as if it had come Leicester's training ground. A beautiful, diagonal ball went like an arrow through the heart of Brentford's hapless back four and James Justin latching onto the ball cleanly. Justin, at full pelt, brought the ball down cleverly and then drove the ball low across the Londoners penalty area where Kelechi Ineacho was on hand to slide the ball over the line.

At this point the red and white stripes of Brentford finally discovered what they had to do to haul themselves manfully back into the Cup tie. At first there were the tentative prods and the kind of fluent short passing that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Premier League. But there was still a lack of punch, cutting edge and potent penetration about the home side that couldn't really dent any damaging holes in Brendan Rodgers Leicester.

The likes of Julian Jeanvier, Dominic Thompson, Dru Yearwood, Kamohelo Mokotjo and the impressive Emiliano Marcondes did give Brentford a clear outline and purpose at times but their attacking scissors were missing. Of course there were moments of fleeting creativity and a sound structure to their football but the club with four pubs on every corner of the ground had found themselves at the Last Chance Saloon. Even John Wayne would have given up the wild goose chase.

And so it was that the team who will always find themselves permanently overshadowed by more glamorous neighbours such as Chelsea it was time to check out of the FA Cup. Your thoughts turned to football's eternal underdogs, the teams who may never reap their deserved rewards because their loftier or supposedly aristocratic betters always seem to know far more than they ever will. Still, for Brentford and Griffin Park this is certainly not the time for long goodbyes. The Premier League is the ultimate objective and who knows where the Bees may be going? They may be hoping that it's in the right direction. We wish them the very the best.