1990–91 Brentford F.C. season

Brentford

1990–91 season
Chairman	Martin Lange
Manager	Phil Holder
Stadium	Griffin Park
Third Division	6th
Play-offs	Semi-final
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Second round
Football League Trophy	Southern Area final
Top goalscorer	League: Blissett (10) All: Blissett (15)
Highest home attendance	8,021
Lowest home attendance	4,812
Average home league attendance	6,144
Home colours Away colours
← 1989–90 1991–92 →

During the 1990–91 English football season, Brentford competed in the Football League Third Division. Five wins in the final six matches of the season propelled the Bees from mid-table into the play-offs, where the club was defeated by Tranmere Rovers in the semi-finals.

Third Division Brentford conducted little transfer business during the 1990 off-season, buying only Sheffield United goalkeeper Graham Benstead and selling full back Roger Stanislaus to Bury.^[1] Midfielder Eddie May was transfer-listed at his own request, while midfielders Keith Jones, Kevin Godfrey and forward Richard Cadette rejected new contracts and instead signed weekly deals.^[2] 10 days before the first match of the season, the club was rocked by the resignation of manager Steve Perryman,^[1] who had been in charge since February 1987.^[3] Perryman's assistant Phil Holder took over and began his first job in football management.^[2]

Just two defeats from the opening 12 league matches of the season had Brentford flirting with automatic promotion, before successive defeats in late October and early November dropped the club into the play-off places.^[4] Aided by the goalscoring of fit-again Gary Blissett, the Bees showed good league form through November and December and ended 1990 in the automatic promotion places.^[4] After loss to Oldham Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup, attention turned to the Football League Trophy, in which the Bees went all the way to the Southern Area finals before being defeated over two legs by league rivals Birmingham City.^[4] The run in the Trophy affected Brentford's promotion-chasing form, with the team having won just seven of 17 matches since the turn of the year.^[4] A draw and a defeat in the wake of the Trophy exit gave way to improved form for the remainder of the season, with five wins from six matches sealing a 6th-place finish and a two-legged tie with Tranmere Rovers in the play-off semi-finals.^[4] A 3–2 defeat on aggregate ended Brentford's season.^[4]

Brentford's goal tally listed first.

• Source: Statto, 11v11, The Big Brentford Book Of The Nineties^[5]

Players' ages are as of the opening day of the 1990–91 season.

Pos.	Name	Nat.	Date of birth (age)	Signed from	Signed in	Notes
Goalkeepers
GK	Graham Benstead		(1963-08-20)20 August 1963 (aged 27)	Sheffield United	1990
Defenders
DF	Jamie Bates		(1968-02-24)24 February 1968 (aged 22)	Youth	1986
DF	Jason Cousins		(1970-10-04)4 October 1970 (aged 19)	Youth	1989
DF	Terry Evans (c)		(1965-04-12)12 April 1965 (aged 25)	Hillingdon	1985
DF	Mark Fleming		(1969-08-11)11 August 1969 (aged 21)	Queens Park Rangers	1989
DF	Clive Goodyear		(1961-01-15)15 January 1961 (aged 29)	Wimbledon	1990
DF	Keith Millen		(1966-09-26)26 September 1966 (aged 23)	Youth	1985
Midfielders
MF	Paul Buckle		(1970-12-16)16 December 1970 (aged 19)	Youth	1988
MF	Allan Cockram		(1963-10-08)8 October 1963 (aged 26)	St Albans City	1988
MF	Kevin Godfrey		(1960-02-24)24 February 1960 (aged 30)	Leyton Orient	1988
MF	Keith Jones		(1965-10-14)14 October 1965 (aged 24)	Chelsea	1987
MF	Robbie Peters		(1971-05-18)18 May 1971 (aged 19)	Youth	1989	Loaned to St Albans City
MF	Simon Ratcliffe		(1967-02-08)8 February 1967 (aged 23)	Norwich City	1989
MF	Wilf Rostron		(1956-09-29)29 September 1956 (aged 33)	Sheffield United	1991	Assistant manager
MF	Neil Smilie		(1958-07-19)19 July 1958 (aged 32)	Reading	1988
Forwards
FW	Gary Blissett		(1964-06-29)29 June 1964 (aged 26)	Crewe Alexandra	1987
FW	Richard Cadette		(1965-03-21)21 March 1965 (aged 25)	Sheffield United	1988
FW	Marcus Gayle		(1970-09-27)27 September 1970 (aged 19)	Youth	1988	Loaned to KuPS
FW	Dean Holdsworth		(1968-11-08)8 November 1968 (aged 21)	Watford	1989
Players who left the club mid-season
GK	Tony Parks		(1963-01-26)26 January 1963 (aged 27)	Tottenham Hotspur	1988	Loaned to Queens Park Rangers and Fulham, transferred to Fulham
DF	Jim Carstairs		(1971-01-29)29 January 1971 (aged 19)	Arsenal	1991	Returned to Arsenal after loan
DF	Stuart Cash		(1965-09-05)5 September 1965 (aged 24)	Nottingham Forest	1990	Returned to Nottingham Forest after loan
MF	Garry Brooke		(1960-11-24)24 November 1960 (aged 29)	Wimbledon	1990	Released
MF	Eddie May		(1967-08-30)30 August 1967 (aged 22)	Hibernian	1989	Transferred to Falkirk

• Source: The Big Brentford Book Of The Nineties^[6]

Name	Role
Phil Holder	Manager
Wilf Rostron	Assistant Manager
Graham Pearce	First Team Coach
Roy Clare	Physiotherapist

Substitute appearances in brackets.

Pos	Nat	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		FL Trophy		Play-offs		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK		Graham Benstead	45	0	3	0	4	0	7	0	2	0	61	0
GK		Tony Parks	1	0	0	0	—		0	0	—		1	0
DF		Jamie Bates	30 (2)	2	0	0	4	1	4	0	2	0	40 (2)	3
DF		Jason Cousins	8	0	0	0	3	0	1 (1)	0	0	0	12 (1)	0
DF		Terry Evans	36	2	3	0	1 (1)	1	6	0	2	1	48 (1)	4
DF		Mark Fleming	18	1	3	0	2	0	4	0	0	0	27	1
DF		Clive Goodyear	10	0	—		—		1	0	0	0	11	0
DF		Keith Millen	31 (1)	2	3	1	4	0	3	0	2	0	41 (1)	3
MF		Garry Brooke	8 (3)	1	0 (1)	0	2	0	—		—		10 (4)	1
MF		Paul Buckle	24 (2)	0	2	0	2	0	4 (1)	0	0	0	32 (3)	0
MF		Allan Cockram	7 (13)	3	1 (2)	0	0	0	4 (2)	0	0	0	12 (17)	3
MF		Kevin Godfrey	26 (6)	4	2 (1)	0	4	1	3 (2)	0	1 (1)	1	36 (10)	6
MF		Keith Jones	45	6	3	2	4	1	6	1	2	0	60	10
MF		Eddie May	16 (1)	2	1	1	4	0	1	0	—		22 (1)	3
MF		Robbie Peters	6	1	—		0	0	—		0 (1)	0	6 (1)	1
MF		Simon Ratcliffe	34 (4)	2	3	0	0 (2)	0	6	0	2	0	45 (6)	2
MF		Wilf Rostron	18 (4)	2	—		—		2 (2)	0	2	0	22 (6)	2
MF		Neil Smilie	33 (3)	3	1	0	4	0	5	2	2	0	45 (3)	5
FW		Gary Blissett	22 (4)	10	3	2	0 (1)	0	3 (1)	3	2	0	30 (6)	15
FW		Richard Cadette	19 (9)	6	1	0	2 (2)	0	6	1	0	0	28 (11)	7
FW		Marcus Gayle	23 (10)	6	2 (1)	0	—		4 (2)	1	1 (1)	0	30 (14)	7
FW		Dean Holdsworth	27 (3)	5	2	3	2	0	4 (1)	1	2	0	37 (4)	9
Players loaned in during the season
DF		Jim Carstairs	8	0	—		—		3	0	—		11	0
DF		Stuart Cash	11	0	—		2	0	0 (1)	0	—		13 (1)	0

• Players listed in italics left the club mid-season.
• Source: The Big Brentford Book Of The Nineties^[6]

Pos.	Nat	Player	FL3	FAC	FLC	FLT	FLP	Total
FW		Gary Blissett	10	2	0	3	0	15
MF		Keith Jones	6	2	1	1	0	10
FW		Dean Holdsworth	5	3	0	1	0	9
FW		Marcus Gayle	6	0	—	1	0	7
FW		Richard Cadette	6	0	0	1	0	7
MF		Kevin Godfrey	4	0	1	0	1	5
MF		Neil Smilie	3	0	0	2	0	5
DF		Terry Evans	2	0	1	0	1	4
MF		Allan Cockram	3	0	0	0	0	3
MF		Eddie May	2	1	0	0	—	3
DF		Jamie Bates	2	0	1	0	0	3
DF		Keith Millen	2	1	0	0	0	3
MF		Wilf Rostron	2	—	—	0	0	2
MF		Simon Ratcliffe	2	0	0	0	0	2
MF		Garry Brooke	1	0	0	—	—	1
MF		Robbie Peters	1	—	0	—	0	1
DF		Mark Fleming	1	0	0	0	0	1
Opponents			1	0	0	0	0	1
Total			59	9	4	9	2	83

• Players listed in italics left the club mid-season.
• Source: The Big Brentford Book Of The Nineties^[6]

Name	Nat	From	To	Record All Comps					Record League
				P	W	D	L	W %	P	W	D	L	W %
Phil Holder		25 August 1990	22 May 1991	62	27	16	19	043.55	46	21	13	12	045.65

Players transferred in
Date	Pos.	Name	Previous Club	Fee	Ref.
July 1990	GK	Graham Benstead	Sheffield United	£70,000	[7]
August 1990	MF	Garry Brooke	Wimbledon	Free	[2]
January 1991	MF	Wilf Rostron	Sheffield United	Free	[8]
March 1991	DF	Clive Goodyear	Wimbledon	Free	[9]
April 1991	GK	Laurence Batty	Fulham	Free	[9]
Players loaned in
Date from	Pos.	Name	From	Date to	Ref.
September 1990	DF	Stuart Cash	Nottingham Forest	December 1990	[2]
February 1991	DF	Jim Carstairs	Arsenal	April 1991	[8]
February 1991	GK	Laurence Batty	Fulham	April 1991	[8]
Players transferred out
Date	Pos.	Name	Subsequent club	Fee	Ref.
30 July 1990	DF	Roger Stanislaus	Bury	£90,000	[10]
15 March 1991	MF	Eddie May	Falkirk	£75,000	[9]
April 1991	GK	Tony Parks	Fulham	Free	[9]
Players loaned out
Date from	Pos.	Name	To	Date to	Ref.
March 1990	FW	Marcus Gayle	KuPS	October 1990	[2]
August 1990	GK	Tony Parks	Queens Park Rangers	September 1990	[10]
September 1990	DF	John Buttigieg	Swindon Town	October 1990	[2]
November 1990	MF	Khotso Moabi	St Albans City	January 1991	[11]
November 1990	DF	Fergus Moore	Yeading	December 1990	[11]
November 1990	MF	Robbie Peters	St Albans City	April 1991	[11]
February 1991	GK	Tony Parks	Fulham	April 1991	[8]
Players released
Date	Pos.	Name	Subsequent club	Join date	Ref.
December 1990	MF	Garry Brooke	Baldock Town	1990	[11]
January 1991	MF	Khotso Moabi	St Albans City	January 1991	[8]
February 1991	DF	Fergus Moore	Staines Town	n/a	[8]
30 June 1991	GK	Laurence Batty	Woking	1991	[12]
30 June 1991	DF	John Buttigieg	Floriana	1991	[12]
30 June 1991	MF	Allan Cockram	Woking	1991	[12]
30 June 1991	DF	Clive Goodyear	Ernest Borel	1991	[12]

Supplier: Chad
Sponsor(s): KLM

Home

Away

Source: Brentford F.C.

• Supporters' Player of the Year: Graham Benstead^[13]
• Players' Player of the Year: Graham Benstead^[13]
• Football League Third Division PFA Team of the Year: Keith Jones^[9]
• Football League Third Division Manager of the Month: Phil Holder (December 1990)^[14]