Across the Seas but Forever Bees - An American Brentford Podcast

Old friend Lev Riley joins Tim and Greville this week in the ASFB studios for a really fascinating conversation. Lev tells us of his first trip to the Gtech, with side-trips to The Griffin pub and to the spot of old Griffin Park. It's (rightly) a bit of a sacred pilgrimage now for a visiting American Bees fan. The Gtech is great n'all...but I miss the old girl. It is the 10th year anniversary of promotion out of League One and fifteenth anniversary of our promotion from League Two, so we celebrate what a long, strange trip it's been with some memories from those campaigns. We look back a bit to the Everton match and look forward to the visit of our own noisy neighbours from Putney.

What a season. The Luton victory says as much about this lost season of such high expectations as any match could. Now that we are back to a near first team (ok...without Rico, Norgaard, Toney and DaSilva!!) we are rampant against a Luton side that really couldn't afford to be beaten. What could have been... This week Adam Harder and Greville Waterman join me in the ASFB studios. Adam is a fascinating and insightful guest that I've been eager for weeks to have on. He is here to discuss his experience as a Brentford fan, be it a walk down Braemar Road past Griffin Park to The Griffin pub or a Saturday morning pint of Guinness in the Red Lion with the lively crew that has grown there. We look back at the Luton match, and on to our effectively guaranteed future in the Premier League.

Tempting fate, I'm declaring us 'safe' for another glorious season in the rarified air of the Premier League after a professional defeat of Sheffield United. Greville Waterman is along to tell me that Luton remains a 'must win' and if not it's 'squeeky bum time'. But, really? The free-flowing conversation includes a review of the match (it was never a foul by Collins!!!), and then some actual looking ahead to a Summer that will require big decisions for so many of the squad. I appreciate the comments, and of course the time that you give us.

Could any three matches have such competing stories as the draws against ManU, Brighton and Villa? Each tell a different version of the season: So much ability and potential in the first, so much exhaustion in the second, so much chaos in the third. Michel Cowdry was at the Gtech for the first two, and was at Fan Fest in Nashville for the third. He's just one of the best guests ever (we've had so many extraordinary people on though!). He has so many great experiences and stories to tell, all representing different facets of Brentford fandom from an American perspective. He rightfully steals the show again for us. :) Oh...and Greville is here too. Listen for Greville eventually!

What a joy it was to speak with Marcus Gayle and with Megan Bespolka, who is the International Marketing Manger for Brentford Football Club. We talk the Nashville Fan Fest as well as about international membership for American fans - and how to plan your journey to the GTech. Along with Greville Waterman I get a chance to ask Marcus about some of the memories he has of his two spells at Brentford. Some simply great stories that are alone really worth a listen. Marcus is truly the definition of an Ambassador for the club. This is a great podcast, if I do say so myself, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did putting it together.

...unless you're a "Big" club obviously. The rules aren't 'different', just malleable apparently. Brent James and Bill Ireland drop into the ASFB studios all the way from Boone, North Carolina to talk Arsenal and Burnley. I really cannot believe how nice all the Brentford people I meet are. Honestly. And I'm also amazed at the passion this little West London club inspires. From meetups each week in the local pubs in so many cities, to backyard parties in towns like Boone, North Carolina. Along with Greville Waterman we have a really interesting discussion of the opportunities that our season-long injury crisis has provided. Who has make a case for themselves, who might be moving on?

Brentford plays a wonderfully topsy turvy match against Chelsea, a match we could have, and maybe should have, won. A match that Chelsea could have, and maybe should have, won. Yah, that sort of match. Greville Waterman and I discuss this and look ahead to the daunting task of taking on an in-form Arsenal. We disagree on the use of the term 'free hit', but agree it'll take a mighty effort to get anything from the match. Still, we're modern Brentford and 'mighty effort' is what we do.

Brian O'Connell joins the podcast this week as we look forward to a tough West London derby against Chelsea. We're trying to stay positive and progressive, but some West Ham discussion was inevitable. Painful though it was. This week's memory lane moments feature Telford and the end of the 2002 season. We specialize in grim memories, here at ASFB Towers. How do you play Chelsea at home, with all that this plucky club has been through health-wise? 4-3-3? 3-5-2? Who plays. I'm sure Thomas Frank will surprise us all and provide another master class in "why we're not football managers". But we take a crack at it anyway.

Don't panic. We're okay. We've just come through a stretch of Spurs, Man City, Wolves, Liverpool, Man City...and we're fine. Lots of reason to be happy even! Glenn Houlihan visits the studios of ASFB from his Iowa location and, along with Greville Waterman, inspires a wonderful conversation about where we've been and where we're going. Where else to you get to hear the names Sam Tillen and/or Thomas Pinault? Right here, is where! I hope it's as fun to listen to as it was to be part of.

Steve D'Amico was a sensational contributor last season and is back this time, being once again sensational. Along with Greville Waterman, we look back at a refreshing and encouraging three points away. So many talking points from a truly entertaining match. The reason you always wanted to be in the Premier League (but never imagined it actually occurring) is to say things like, "...and now we look forward to Liverpool at home, and then Manchester City three days later." So you have to be balanced and calm about this daunting week to come.

What a mad season. We get beat up at home and I'm...pretty pleased. We discover we might have a first-rate keeper, we have a team of character and grit, we gave an assembled all-world team a real battle. I do love supporting this club. Charlie Corr, of the New York Church of the Red Lion, joins Greville Waterman and me for a really fun discussion of the match, of where we are, and of the daunting month before us. Thanks for listening, and for the comments I get through social media and through email (timsearls@hotmail.com).

We here at Across the Seas but Forever Bees have met so many fascinating people, all drawn to the Brentford story and to the ethos of the club. It just is a club that good people find naturally. This episode of the pod features the engaging Mike Sacco who, like so many Bees fans, is finding the club and the culture just for them. Along with the returning Greville Waterman we dive into the strange Spurs match from Wednesday, which leads to a wide-ranging conversation on the slightly perilous state of Brentford on this end of January Deadline Day. All of it is good (it really is) but stay to the end to hear about The Chase!

Beating Forest, and drinking from the cup of their salty tears, was amazing. The rising panic of no wins in what seemed like months has subsided. To have Ivan Toney back, along with a host of others, has cheered the Gtech right up. Today we talk with Trevor Inns, who runs the Griffin Park Grapevine website and is such a insightful and interesting guest. To new fans of Brentford FC: If you've not logged onto the GPG...I'll wait while you create an account... A special shout-out to Greville Waterman. He's had to take a week off, and we sure missed his knowledge and his general passion. The staff at ASFB looks forward to getting back to discussing all things Spursy in the next week.

We're back! The staff at Across the Seas but Forever Bees takes their winter holidays and it all goes south on the pitch. Brentford have lost five straight, and has spent what seems like hours on the pitch not getting out of the 3rd round of the FA Cup. But a bright Ivan Toney-shaped light is starting to come on with the new year, some new faces are joining the club (one arriving pre-crocked unfortunately but predictably!), and some important pieces of our team are getting fit again. There are reasons to be cheerful. AND I can report on my first trip to the Gtech - it's a wonderful, special place. Excited for the second half of the season!

Three wonderfully won points against Luton are drown out by the loss at Brighton on Wednesday. The hits keep coming, as another unreplaceable player heads to the list of long-term injuries. We give thanks that we're managed by such a master, that we have players coming back, and that we have accumulated enough points to hopefully ride out the lean weeks to come. It's not at all doom-and-gloom in the ASFB studios when Glenn Houlihan and Greville Waterman come in to go over an interesting couple of days around West London.

Remember when we used to dream of one-off Cup matches against 'teams like Arsenal'. Now we play them with the remnants of a squad decimated by injury...and we're unlucky not to get something from the match. A free-hit that didn't work out is the worst you can say about last Saturday. Nolan and Greville Waterman are in the studios to discuss this and so much more, including a look ahead to teams looking up the table at us, for once. There's opportunity there no doubt, but pressure as well. There are no easy ones at this level.

...there's no real reason to discuss Liverpool at all. Instead we talk his experiences around Griffin Park in the 1950s and 1960s. Really. What stories he has from a golden era of Brentford. Players I've heard of, he saw live! Greville Waterman and I sit at Malcolm's feet to hear stories of Tower, Cakebread, McDonald and many, many others. Whether you're a long-time Bee or just come to the club, this is a podcast worth your time.

If the designers of football dreamed up the perfect match for spectators, it would probably follow the script from last weekend: Returning favorite scores, the home team falls behind, only to gloriously triumph in the end. What a match we had with West Ham. Ben Clowney joins from Michigan (he's not originally from there) to talk about West Ham and to look ahead at the exciting Sunday fixture against Liverpool. Great days to be a Bee.

Honestly, a decade ago if I told you we'd be sitting there looking down on the other three West London clubs (I can't bring myself to name them, not at Holloween).... A third win in a row at Stamford Bridge and once again the sun is out and the birds are singing. Who was that on the ledge a few weeks ago talking panic and gloom??? Thank you for listening, thank you for the comments. This is a labor of love but it means a lot that people are enjoying it with us.

What's not to love? Maupay reminds us why we were so in love with him a few years ago, VAR provides the talking points, crazy weather, 19 year old wonderkinds getting their debuts, three absolutely cracking goals, pirouetting midfield geniuses, a red card even. It was a great day last Saturday down the olde Gtech. Michel Cowdrey checks in from Atlanta, and he has an AMAZING Brentford story to tell, spanning generations. Along with our friend from the North, Greville Waterman we look back at a brilliant win against Burnley and forward to a daunting challenge at Stamford Bridge.