Alexander was subsitituted on Saturday much to the dismay of the Brentford fans

London24 Brentford blogger Tom Moore wonders what has gone wrong since the Bees opening day triumph

After the high of Yeovil it’s back down to earth with a bump after Brentford were shocked by Hereford United in the Carling Cup and then comprehensively beaten by Sheffield United on Saturday.

Despite dominating for large periods of the game Brentford were made to pay for not taking their chances as Yoann Arquin scored in the dying seconds to knock the visitors out.

The Bees followed this up with a poor performance at Sheffield United, leaving fans questioning Uwe Rösler’s tactics for the first time.

Rösler claimed he took off Clayton Donaldson and Niall McGinn for tactical reasons, when they looked to be two of the better players on the field, replacing them with Sam Saunders and Charlie MacDonald.

Then, at 2-0 down, he took off striker Gary Alexander, replacing him with midfielder Kevin O’Connor.

The season is still at an early stage and things can be rectified. However some players have not been performing at the level they were last season.

Some seem to only play well when they are deemed as “the main man” by the manager and fail to perform otherwise. Others can be exceptional on their day but woeful on another.

Brentford travel to Exeter on Tuesday evening and hopefully will produce an improved performance. Two of the last four trips to Exeter have been fantastic.

One of them was when The Bees played them in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Area Final, drawing 1-1 at home and winning 2-0 away leading to a conga in the away end. It was a special night and champagne was had after the match to celebrate getting to Wembley, although the less said about that day the better.

The other was in the 2008/09 season when Brentford came alive in the last half-an-hour to register an excellent win against a side who finished runners up to the Bees in that season.