By Community Correspondent Miles Dilworth

A sense of fulfilment seems to be oozing through Griffin Park at current as the chance of playing some of the big names of English football awaits the club and after a win at home to Norwich and a well earned point away at Southampton hopes were high of a victory against the Latics.

And it was Brentford who started brightly and could have gone ahead within a minute played; Myles Weston breaking away down the right and with Bees shirts outnumbering the blue of Oldham, Weston’s eventual cross into the hands of goalkeeper Dean Brill was nothing if not disappointing. This was to be a recurring theme throughout the first half, with Sam Saunders and Weston providing a constant threat to their opposition full backs but the end product too often lacked the quality needed to feed their 6ft4 centre forward Carl Cort.

But Saunders was eventually rewarded for his persistence when the winger darted into the box before being barged in a clumsy challenge by Oldham’s Andy Holdsworth. Kevin O’Connor, skipper for the day in the absence of Alan Bennett, stepped up and lashed the ball past Brill to give his side a deserved lead; just the morale boost needed on the stroke of half time.

The second half continued in the same vein as the first with Brentford making the early running, monopolising possession without creating any clear-cut chances. But Oldham made up for 50 minutes of gloom with one moment of sparkling brilliance from on-loan striker Nick Blackman, the forward curling a delicious shot up and around Lewis Price’s fingertips as the ball nestled in to the corner of the goal. The score 1-1, as it remained until the final whistle, despite more pressure from the home side.

The Bees will regret their side’s lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, a frustration shared by their fans. ‘I think we posed their defence a lot of questions,’ said fan George Matthias’, ‘just a shame we couldn’t finish them off.’ Yet the notion of Brentford’s disappointment at a point against a club who have been the mainstay of this division for well over a decade, reflects the fact that the London side should be competing at the right end of the table throughout the season and the general consensus that the Bees are back where they belong.