Whatever happened to Kevin O’Connor’s testimonial?

Amid the heady euphoria of last season’s championship triumph, the fact that Super Kev’s 10th season with the Bees was not capped by a one-off game appears to have been forgotten.

One of O’Connor’s former Brentford managers, Steve Coppell, had agreed to bring his Reading side down for a match at Griffin Park at the end of the campaign but the Royals, annoyingly, blew their chances of automatic promotion and ended up in the play-offs, meaning the game was called off.

There is no doubt O’Connor thoroughly deserves a pay day and I am sure Bees supporters would love a chance to show their appreciation to a modern-day legend.

He is still only 27 but has played more than 300 games for the Bees under 11 managers – from the mad (Martin Allen) to the bad (Leroy Rosenior, Scott Fitzgerald and, of course, Terry Butcher) – and tried out more positions than a Karma Sutra expert.

Everyone knows that, in the era of the Bosman ruling, financial struggle and petty avarice, the idea of a player staying at one club for longer than 12 minutes is rarer than a BBC programme not featuring Adrian Chiles.

While we supporters stick with a team no matter how dreadful they are because that is the cruel hand fate has dealt us, there is nothing that can force a player to show a similar loyalty, particularly to a club on a downward spiral.

O’Connor has gone against the grain by staying with the Bees through a little bit of thick and a lot of thin, and that cannot have been an easy thing to do.

No matter what has been thrown at him, he has, to his immense credit, rolled up his sleeves and got on with it.

He has worked mighty hard to win himself new contract after new contract, and the success of last season must have tasted all the sweeter after all the play-off and relegation disappointments that have gone before.

The two penalties he scored on Tuesday night in our win against Southend were reminders – as if any were needed – of how important he still is to the team.

I would urge the Brentford board to pull out their collective finger and get a testimonial match booked in for him.

It would probably have to be at the end of the season but I am sure if a game against Fulham or Queens Park Rangers could be arranged, it would be well worth the wait.

The ‘Give Kev a Game’ campaign starts here!