Reflections on a historic, symbolic and emotional day for Brentford

After years of trying, Brentford have finally broken ground on the Lionel Road site.

It may be just a shovel in the ground but, as mentioned previously, it's a symbolic moment that heralds a new dawn for the club.

The great and the good among Brentford were there to witness it, albeit with a few notable exceptions including Matthew Benham and Brian Burgess.

After the snow returned to west London over the last couple of days it was great to see the weather gods smile on the club, even though the wind was bitterly cold and makes recording interviews that much harder!

Over the last few months, I've walked down Lionel Road South on a regular basis to Kew Bridge Station, or beyond to Richmond, at times wondering if work would ever properly start there and, on other occasions, what it'd be like to be walking down the hill on a matchday.

It was a nostalgic moment crossing the rail bridge heading south as, when you look to your right you can see the iconic Griffin Park floodlights that represent the current and historic nature of the club that will never fail to stir your emotions and, to your left, the Lionel Road site and the future of the Bees.

Tens of thousands of hours of hard work has gone into getting the club into this position and it also provides a moment to reflect on those who are sadly no longer with us. We know they'd be smiling at the prospect of seeing the club progress.

On the site, there's not much to see at this moment as you'd expect but you can imagine the sights and sounds of a matchday.

And you can sense the excitement in the club just by speaking to the likes of chairman Cliff Crown and Mark Devlin.

On the playing side, John Egan was excited by the project and it adds to the sense that he's at a growing club.

Head coach Dean Smith knows it will also make a sales pitch easier come the summer as he can point to the fact work has started.

The club plan to move into the new stadium in December 2019 and I must say that I'm torn on that aspect of the plans.

I fully appreciate the idea of getting into the ground sooner rather than later and the positive impact that would make for finances among other things.

However, it appears to be a logistical nightmare when it comes to season tickets especially and the transfer from an old ground to new, not to mention the nostalgia associated with Griffin Park.

What it does mean, though, is that the Brentford B team is highly likely to play the first ever game at Lionel Road as one of the test events prior to the first team moving ground. Were it a summer move, the pre-season friendlies would be able to count as test events.

Given the timings, I'd predict a B team game, an Anglo Irish rugby game with London Irish poised to share the stadium and, maybe, a youth international, to get the green light for both sports.

They say time waits for no man. In the 1950s, Brentford were seen as a sleeping giant after their success prior to the second world war.

Over time, that perception dropped away but, with a new stadium around the corner, the giant is twitching.

It won't be long until it roars once again.