The 1908-9 season turned out to a torrid one for Brentford. I wasn’t there but I’ve got the official handbook and it could just be the oldest Brentford handbook in existence.These official Brentford FC publications were first known to be printed in the early 1900’s and were produced over many seasons by the Club and later by the Brentford Football Supporters and Social Club.
This one was priced a penny, I can’t remember what I paid for it many years later at a programme fair. Inside there are useful pages like a map of how to get to Griffin Park including by ‘Electric Cars”
For those still getting the hang of this football lark there was a plan of a pitch.
There was a new ‘Secretary-Manager’, Mr J.F ‘Fred’ Halliday, who held the helm with us on three separate occasions (1908 – 1912, 1915 – 1921 & 1924 – 1926). He was to be our manager when as a club we finally got elected into the Football League in 1920. Fred seemed as experienced in the law as he was in football.
That legal experience turned out to be very useful. Jonathan Burchill’s book ‘A Pub on Each Corner’ records that the Club’s former goalkeeper, Charles Williams took Brentford to court claiming he was owed a winner’s gold medal which he said he’d earned from a success in the previous season. He lost the case and had to pay Brentford’s legal costs. After feelings ran high during a game with Exeter a groundsman was fined for assaulting a spectator and one of the director’s sons, It was going to be that kind of season.
Alongside new Secretary-Manager Halliday (centre of the top row) was a new ‘Trainer’ ,Tom Cowper,(centre bottom row) with a whole new squad of players. At the end of what had been a successful previous season many of the players refused to accept lower wages to help the Club’s financial situation and had moved on.
The whole squad had to be introduced to the fans.
Among them was a centre-forward called A.McCulloch, his first name was Alex. Jonathan Burchill notes that there were to be two more McCullochs in the same position in later years. Alex McCulloch only played 12 games for us and managed to score 3 goals, before being transferred onto Bradford Park Avenue for a princely sum of £350, with Geordie Reid arriving at Griffin Park in part-exchange.
With all this new blood the fixture list in the handbook seemed to promise an exciting season including London derbies against Chelsea, West Ham, QPR and Millwall. 
In fact it was a disastrous season. Brentford finished 21st out of the 21 clubs.Things got so bad the Club considered moving to the White City stadium which had been built for the 1908 London Olympics. But the move to Shepherds Bush was averted and so was a drop down a division . We finished the season bottom of the Southern League but due to restructuring – the League was increased to 22 clubs- we never got relegated.