Mark Pugh and Shaun Cooper were both ruled out by injury from the team against Colchester on Saturday meaning Lee Bradbury and Harry Arter were brought in to midfield and Marvin Bartley moved to centre-back.
The home side started the stronger and a poor clearance by Jalal was almost punished as Macdonald returned it with interest but his left-foot shot just scraped the post.
Cherries stepped up the quality though and were soon treating us to the lovely passing football to which we have become accustomed to this season. The first real chance to turn this into goals came on the quarter hour when Liam Feeney curling a shot over the crossbar.
Danny Hollands had the next chance 5 minutes later following a lovely through ball from Arter. Hollands though sliced his shot wide. Feeney was getting more joy than of late and crossed for Josh McQuoid who could not get his header on target.
Just before half-time Feeney caused panic in the Bees defence. Following a strong run on the left he cut inside and shot, only to hit a defender on the chest and see the ball scrambled away by the goalkeeper.
At the break the concern was that once more we had failed to turn some good possession into the deserved advantage. H-T 0-0
The pressure continued at the start of the second period and McQuoid was again off-target when Bradbury found him with a header across the box. The deadlock was finally broken after 53 minutes from a free-kick when McQuoid was fouled on the edge of the penalty area. Pugh floated the cross and Hollands ghosted in to head the ball in from inside the 6-yard box.
The celebrations were cut short though as the lead lasted just 4 minutes when Brentford were awarded a very dodgy penalty. MacDonald made a run across the area closely shepherded by Bartley and went down like the proverbial sack. There had been no contact from Marvin and I can only assume that he tripped over the penalty spot. Referee Mr Woolmer though thought this was enough to award the spot kick which was safely converted by Grabban despite Jalal getting a hand to it.
It was time for super-sub Steve Fletcher although for the first time in recent matches the Big Man failed to make the desired impact. Feeney had a good chance to restore the lead with 15 minutes to go but he failed to control a long ball from Bradbury. Rhoys Wiggins had the last attempt when he lashed an ambitious shot from wide on the left just over the bar. F-T 1-1
So once again we dominated a game and failed to come away with all the points. I just hope that we don’t come to regret it later in the season when we suffer an inevitable drop in form. To rub salt in the wound another team from the south coast won tonight to go above us in the table.
At least the short journey home meant that some of us had time to drown our sorrows at the ever popular Brentford Tandoori.
Liam Feeney
AFCB: Jalal, Wiggins, Bartely, Pearce, Smith, Bartley, Hollands, Arter, Robinson, Feeney, McQuoid
Subs: Stewart, Purches, Cummings, Taylor, Stockley, Fletcher (on for Arter, 71 mins)
Clive Loader, Wimbledon