Derek Burridge was there the last time Brentford played in the top tier in 1947 and will be there against
Arsenal on Friday
Derek Burridge returns to his garden table clutching a glossy hardback, published to commemorate Brentford’s 125th anniversary seven years ago and begins to flick through its pages, evoking golden memories of first going to games at Griffin Park during the second world war. He tells how a trio of players, signed from Middlesbrough for a pittance in the 1930s, transformed the club, but the match that sticks out in his mind is Brentford’s 4-1 trouncing of Wolves in 1946-47, their last season in the top flight.
Brentford’s final game that season was a narrow home defeat by Arsenal and, rather fittingly, they host the same opponents when they kick off the
Premier League season under the lights on Friday. Just as he was 74 years ago, Burridge will be looking on from the stands. Such perfect symmetry is down to the fixture generator but there is another quirk, too: Burridge grew up at No 69 Lionel Road, at the other end of the street from Brentford’s striking new home, and his mother lived there until she died in 2006.