A team so often caricatured as a one-man show have discovered other ways of winning without a natural No 9
Mark Flekken has the ball at his feet. The game between Fulham and Brentford is winding down to a finish, and with Brentford 2-0 up neither team seems in any great hurry to get on with things. The Brentford goalkeeper takes a couple of touches, waits for the picture to assemble in front of him. Twelve seconds later, the ball thuds into the back of the Fulham net.
The events that unfold in those 12 seconds offer the faintest outline of what, exactly, it is Brentford are doing out there. For this is a club of multiple apparent paradoxes. A team that lost their 20-goal striker and not only refused to replace him, but are now scoring more freely as a consequence. A team playing long-ball football with two forwards who are 5ft 7in and 5ft 9in. A team of limited means who in their third season of Premier League football are actually becoming more elusive, not less.
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