newcastle united vs brentford timeline how many times have they played

Digging Up Dirt on the Toons vs Bees History

Right, so yesterday I got this itch in my brain. That friendly argument down the pub about Newcastle vs Brentford – how many times they’ve actually played, who usually wins? Couldn’t shake it. Figured, “How hard can it be?” Famous last words, mate.

First port of call was the obvious: the Premier League official stuff. Fired up the laptop, brew in hand. Typed in “Premier League head to head Newcastle Brentford”. Got a nice table… for the last few seasons. Total flippin’ useless. This rivalry, if you can even call it that these days, goes way back, doesn’t it? The official stuff barely scratched the surface.

Off I went diving down rabbit holes. Football club wikis seemed promising. Brentford’s one actually had a decent “Head-to-head” section. Found stats! But then I checked Newcastle’s wiki page for consistency… absolute crickets on Brentford specifically. Just scattered mentions. Typical Newcastle, that. More annoying than finding a turd in your cornflakes.

Needed deeper roots, proper archive stuff. Started searching for “Newcastle United all-time results archive”. Found some fan-run sites. Gold dust! Well, mostly. One had results going back to the Bleedin’ 1890s. Now we’re talking!

Started the grindy bit. Scrolled and scrolled. Ctrl+F “Brentford” became my new best mate. Flicking through seasons on that site felt like manual labour.

• Early 1900s? Found ’em!
• 1930s? Oh yeah, loads.
• Post-war periods? Dodgy data, gaps here and there.
• That random League Cup tie nobody remembers? Scored it!

Kept a tally sheet – actual pen and paper, felt proper old school. Cross-referenced everything. Checked another archive site that claimed it was definitive. Numbers didn’t quite match the first one! Panic. Which source is chatting breeze?

Finally found a forum thread where proper stat nerds had argued this exact thing years ago. They’d collated stuff from club handbooks, match reports, the lot. Finally felt like solid ground. My tally matched the generally accepted nerd consensus. Phew.

Added up the final numbers from my messy little sheet. League, Cups, the works. Looked at it. All that effort… for two clubs who haven’t played each other that much really. Made me laugh. Spent half my bleedin’ Saturday chasing a stat barely anyone cares about. Classic me. There it was, the magic number, confirmed through sheer stubbornness and too much coffee. Job done.