The Bees showed League One exactly what they were capable of this afternoon after beating big spenders Crawley (and Gary Alexander) by two goals to one at Griffin Park.

Clayton Donaldson silenced his critics, for another week at least, after two superb pieces of technique that a certain Lionel Messi would have been proud of.

Finally the bloke seems to have found the scoring form that he started in the first few weeks of the campaign.

But what else interesting happened? Well, it seemed that Uwe dropped his controversial diamond formation for a more common 4-4-2 and it definitely seemed to work. Brentford were sensational in the first half, playing some really fantastic football that Uwe promised when he first came to TW8. If his style of football was a real person it would definitely be Nicole Scherzinger or Channing Tatum. Depending on your personal preference.

Who said sexy football doesn’t win games?

Once again, Adam Forshaw was superb in the middle of the park, playing just like a puppy plays in the park with his favourite bone or ball. He looked like he was involved in a friendly game with his mates back on Merseyside – twisting, turning and slaloming through Crawley mercenaries, er, I mean players like they weren’t there. How we ever managed to get him from Everton is beyond me, he is far too good for this league in my opinion.

Another point I picked up from the game was Clayton’s strong running game – which saw him scoring in the 24th and 76th minutes. I’ve seen people moaning on Twitter about him constantly and I’m so glad that he proved them wrong today. His runs are fundamental to the way we play football – it’s what you ask for from your strikers. Of course you want them to score, but when they are making runs that opens the field up for your other strikers and midfielders it’s a real bonus.

There were, on the other hand, some bad points from the game, the first being the small lapse in concentration for about two minutes. Okay, yes, the assistant referee had a shocker and their winger was offside in the build up to the goal. But that doesn’t take away from the one bit of poor defending that cost us a goal.

However, mistakes happen, and Shay is as good as any right back in our league and he will bounce back. He held his hands up – it’s forgotten about now.

Another sad note is that I felt more people got injured in those 90 minutes than did on the first day of the Somme. Tony Craig is going from strength to strength after what can only be described as a shocking start to the season. After a solid header he received what seemed like an elbow to the head from Judas that left him with a cut on top of his head – thankfully the boy recovered from it.

Secondly, Farid El Alagui was taken off on a stretcher after colliding with one of the Crawley defenders in the dying minutes of the game, and one hopes that it is not as serious as it looked and that he is all well and good. We really need him this season and I wouldn’t wish a bad injury on anyone. However, it looks like he is set to have a long spell out. The striker has severe swelling to his knee and will be set for scans once it goes down.

Lastly, I saw what looked like an old man in the Braemar Road stand fall down the stairs today, where he landed fairly heavily. I’m not sure what happened to the lad but I hope he is okay and all is well with him.

See, I told you it was worse than the 1st July 1916.

Next up is, yes, Crawley Town. Again. In the JPT. Although I think Uwe will field a slightly weaker team I still hope that they put Crawley to the sword and that we progress to the next round. A trip to Wembley is certainly most welcome.

Ryan O'Donovan