Having joined the Football League in 1920 as founder members of the newly-created third tier of the professional game, Brentford spent most of that decade in the lower reaches of the Third Division (South) without ever looking like challenging for promotion. The advent of the 30s, however, saw the Bees achieve two promotions in three seasons under manager Harry Curtis whose long tenure as manager covered the years between 1926 and 1949.

Derby’s first visit to Griffin Park would conclude season 1935/36 and result in a 0-6 defeat. The following season’s game wasn’t much better as the Rams conceded six once again in a 2-6 defeat. Striker Dave McCulloch had netted four times in the first of these defeats – a feat which undoubtedly impressed George Jobey when he secured the striker’s services paying a club record £9,500 a couple of years later.

Third time lucky, then, when the Rams arrived at Griffin Park in February of 1938. These were heady days for the home club – Brentford had already won 3-1 at the Baseball Ground earlier in the season and were sitting top of the table, a point clear of Arsenal and Wolves, and had secured a quarter-final tie against Preston in the FA Cup. They had, however, only collected one point from their previous three fixtures. The Rams were sitting 10^th in the table, gradually recovering from their slow start to the season which had resulted in only two wins from the opening 12 games.

Having beaten Blackpool 3-1 a week earlier, a trip to the league leaders seemed an odd choice to give a debut to two young players but that’s what Jobey did, with Tom Alton and John Brinton replacing David Bell and Dally Duncan respectively. Charlie Napier’s injury allowed Reg Stockill to make a rare appearance in the first team.

As the afternoon unfolded, though, it wouldn’t be the debutants whose performance would be under the greatest scrutiny – it would be the referee Mr. McKenzie.

For the match, Brentford issued a very readable 24-page programme costing 2d.

“Notes From The Hive” are followed by “Jottings From the Board Room” which allude (in bold print) to an issue which is not specified here but must have been common knowledge as the overt threat of legal action sounds very serious. I have no idea as to what was in dispute or to whom it referred.

“Shots From The Spot” on page 7 highlight just what a major draw the FA Cup was back in those days. More than 367,000 spectators had paid receipts of £28,880 to see the eight ties and in three of those games – at York, Chesterfield and Charlton – new ground attendance records had been set. In another sign of the times, however, this news is followed by a brief report on the Players Union going cap-in-hand to the League for an increase in the basic pay rates for a professional player.

Team line-ups and league tables dominate the centre pages and these are followed by copious pen-pics of the Rams players. There’s a half page report on the progress of the Wembley Lions ice hockey team (a growing sport at the time in England, I believe) and page 21 includes another example of those cartoons so often found in pre-war programmes. Overall, this is a splendid issue and great value for 2d.

And so to the match itself – one which generated the Evening Telegraph headline: “Derby County Undeserving Of Lecture At Griffin Park”.

Brentford made the early running and, understandably, were keen to test the young right-back Alton by letting the ball find its way to their Scottish international left-winger Bobby Reid. Alton, however, was no pushover and earned praise from the Telegraph’s reporter in shackling the threat of Reid. Brentford did, however, take a first-half lead from the penalty spot, following a push from Jack Barker on Jack Holliday, converted by right-half  Duncan McKenzie (no relation to the referee). The two sides went into the interval on level terms when the Rams’ right-half Jack Nicholas also converted a penalty. Both spot-kicks appear to have been hotly disputed.

The second half had only just begun when John Brinton marked his debut with a goal to give Derby the lead before yet another much-disputed spot kick allowed McKenzie to convert once again to bring the scores level.

The decision to award this and the resultant complaints from every outfield Derby player as to the inconsistent performance of the referee resulted in Mr. McKenzie then delaying the match’s restart when he summoned the ten Rams outfield players into what might today be referred to as a “huddle”, presumably to tell them to calm down and get on with the football.  No fewer than four whole paragraphs in the Telegraph’s match report are devoted to the various actions of the match officials throughout the ninety minutes so no doubt there was a feeling of “justice done” when, on 88 minutes, Ronnie Dix pounced on an error by Jim Brown to seal the points for Derby.

3-2 to Derby it finished, then, and it was later revealed that Rams goalkeeper Jack Kirby had played the whole of the second-half in great pain after taking an elbow from Billy Scott to his jaw. An incident the referee appears to have missed.

For the Rams, the remainder of the season would see a continuation of their inconsistent form and they would eventually finish 13^th. The defeat didn’t knock Brentford off the top of the table but only four wins in their final 16 games saw them end the season in sixth place.

Brentford: Crozier; Brown, Bateman; McKenzie, James, Sneddon; Smith, Scott, McCulloch, Holliday, Reid.

Derby: Kirby; Alton, Howe; Nicholas, Barker, Ward; Crooks, Dix, Astley, Stockill, Brinton.

Att: 20,561