Brentford 3-2 Fulham
by Layth Yousif
at the Brentford Community Stadium

A LITTLE over 36 years ago, this derby, then a Division Three clash, played out on a frozen Sunday morning at grand old Griffin Park. Such were the freezing conditions, kick-off was improbably moved back an hour in a bid to let the pitch thaw out somewhat. The conditions relented and an entertaining 3-3 draw ensued.

The season for both sides was the archetypal essence of mid table mediocrity - Brentford finished 12th and Fulham finished ninth - albeit with the six goals shared in that long-lost derby in February 1988, featuring a lively young tyro called Paul Merson, on loan to the Bees of West London from the Gunners of North London.

If you were to insist that three and a half decades on this clash would be the biggest West London derby clash of the top-flight season, with both sides above currently misfiring two-time Champions League winners Chelsea, there surely wouldn't have been many takers on the atmospheric but crumbling New Road terraces, that would have been scarcely able to imagine such a scenario, let along manifest it.