MUSTER was at eight o’clock on a cold, still-dark morning on the Macron car park for the trip down to face the Bees of Griffin Park.

Not many of us were buzzing at that unearthly hour as we prepared to face a team unbeaten in their last 12 home matches who, after a poor start, have not looked back since we set them on their winning ways back in late September. A point would be a good result.

Brunch was a welcome full English breakfast at Cherwell Valley Services.

From where the coaches have to park, we had to walk over an old footbridge over the railway, bringing back memories of crossing Orlando footbridge to walk down the Manny Road to see the Burnden aces.

We still arrived in good time to sink a few pints of London Pride in the friendly Griffin, where both sets of fans happily mixed but, alas, there was not enough time to undertake the Brentford four-corners challenge.

Maybe next year, if we stay up as the locals were telling me their new ground will not be ready until December 2019.

We were sardined into the Brook Road stand where the lack of legroom was a problem, even for the vertically challenged like me.

We already had our heads on our knees before a ball was kicked.

Phil Parkinson threw Harry Charsley straight into the firing line and we started brightly in both halves, holding our own for the majority of the match.

But we lacked that cutting edge to create real chances and paid the price when we conceded soft goals late in each half.

It’s a long journey back when you lose a match that you could have got something out of.

Fortunately, we didn’t lose any ground on our relegation rivals as most of them lost as well.

It’s going to be tight; It’s going to go to the wire.

We’re going to need every point we can get and Saturday was a missed opportunity as there was a point to be had.

If only we could have been more creative and more of the players had played to their true form.