IN THE TONE OF VOICE of parents who, as their teenagers go back to school, wonder why they have to pack their rucksacks, Leroy Rosenior, the Brentford manager, wondered if he was mollycoddling his players. “They shouldn’t need me to go in and put them straight all the time,” he said of a “passionate” half-time team talk after a shoddy first-half performance. “They had to grow up and they did that in the second half. It was an incredible transformation.”
And although victory was secured with an audacious overhead kick from Jo Kuffour, it was Rosenior’s name that the home crowd chanted. When the former Torquay manager replaced the outspoken Martin Allen, those fans must have wondered if life was going to be dull, but Rosenior’s young side are unbeaten.
Bradford City were punished for scoring only once with the strong wind behind them. Mark Bower bundled the ball in after Stuart Nelson, the Brentford goalkeeper, failed to cope with David Graham’s lofted ball into the area.
But, inspired by Rosenior’s comments, Brentford hit back. Kuffour struck the upright before Kevin O’Connor headed in from Paul Brooker’s corner. Brooker again delivered for Kuffour’s acrobatic finish.
Brentford (4-4-2): S Nelson — K O’Connor, M Heywood, A Griffiths, D Charles (sub: A Rhodes, 46min) — P Brooker, J Mousinho (sub: K Osborne, 46), T Pinault, S Tillen — C Willock (sub: C Moore, 71). Substitutes not used: C Masters, C Ide. Booked: Moore, Pinault NEXT Leyton Orient (a) FORM WDDDWW
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Bradford City (4-4-2): D Ricketts — N Doyle, D Wetherall, M Bower, A Rogers — J Johnson (sub: J Colbeck, 77), S Schumacher, M Bridge-Wilinson, L Holmes — D Graham (sub: E Johnson, 77), D Windass. Substitutes not used: R Edghill, R Howarth, M Clarke. Booked: Rogers NEXT Swansea (a) FORM LDWWWL K