Three supporters who have helped record some of the great moments in the Club’s history were the latest to perform the Griffin Park Countdown. At every home match in 2019/20 we are counting down to the final game at Griffin Park by updating a special display showing the number of remaining league matches. At the match on Saturday, when The Bees beat Reading, the Farewell Griffin Park countdown was changed to 15 by Rob Jex, Dave Twydell and Ian Westbrook.

Rob, Dave and Ian were three of the contributing writers to 100 Years of Brentford, the book brought out at the time of the Club’s centenary in 1989. The two remaining authors – Graham Haynes and Eric White – have died since the publication of the book 30 years ago. Rob, Dave and Ian represented the team that put together that history of the Club when they performed the countdown on Saturday.

All three are still involved in recording the Club’s history and writing about The Bees. Rob is a current contributor to the Brentford FC matchday programme, Ian – also a programme contributor for three decades – writes for Beesotted, the Brentford fan channel, while Dave’s company Yore Publications have produced books including a history of Griffin Park in 2004, the centenary of the stadium, and an updated history book in 2008.

The Club is very lucky to have numerous historians recording – and often publishing – the Club’s past, both recent and not so recent. Graham Haynes and Geoff Buckingham wrote the first history of the Club in 1979 and many books have followed since, most recently the Big Brentford Book series by Mark Croxford, Dave Lane and Greville Waterman. It was Graham Haynes who discovered that the Club was formed in 1889, confirming the details of the first days of Brentford FC, previously thought to have been founded in 1888.

Frank Coumbe, Mark Chapman, John Hirdle and Dan Jackson are also among those who have produced a broad range of written and pictorial publications about the Club over the past 40 years. Others – including Paul Briers, Sav Kyriacou and Robin Pearson – are also recording the Club’s history for future generations with the assistance of Brentford FC staff.