Chairman Louis P. Simon Highest home attendance 12,079 | First Division 12th (abandoned) | |
Top goalscorer League: Holliday (17)All: Holliday (17) | ||
During the 1939–40 English football season, Brentford competed in the Football League, playing three matches before competitive football was suspended due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The club played in three unofficial wartime competitions for the remainder of the season - groups B and C of the Football League South and the London War Cup.
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Season summary
After narrowly avoiding relegation towards the end of the 1938–39 season, Brentford manager Harry Curtis released full back Joe Wilson, half backs Sam Briddon, Tally Sneddon and amateur forwards Maurice Edelston and Jackie Gibbons. Curtis signed young Sunderland inside forward Percy Saunders and brought in former Manchester United wing half Tom Mansley as his new captain. The season opened with a heavy 5–1 Football League Jubilee Trophy defeat to neighbours Chelsea on 19 August 1939. Brentford began the regular season with a win, a draw and a defeat before competitive football was suspended following Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Percy Saunders, who had scored on his debut on the opening day, would become the only pre-war Brentford player to die on active service during the war, when his ship was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean in March 1942.
The cessation of competitive football was worrying for Brentford, with £12,000 spent on new players in pre-season and little prospect of recouping it through the turnstiles. 23 of Brentford's 30-man squad were called to arms, into the War Police Reserve or into the munitions industry. Within two weeks of the declaration of war, the Football League agreed that football could continue, in order to keep clubs in business and to raise funds. Brentford entered Group B of the new Football League South in October 1939 and the squad was augmented by three guest players who had previously played for the club - Scottish international half back Duncan McKenzie, fellow Scottish half back Archie Scott and inside forward Bert Stephens. 30-year old centre forward Jack Holliday (previously prolific in the Third and Second Divisions between 1932 and 1935) experienced a renaissance, scoring 14 goals in 16 appearances, though Brentford could finish no better than 5th. A further 18-match campaign followed in Group C in the first six months of 1940, with 13 players guesting, including two former international Brentford players - Scotland's David McCulloch and the United States' Jim Brown. The Bees finished 4th in the 10-team group and exited the London War Cup in the first round.
Football League South Group C
Source: Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation