In the wake of
Brentford's relegation straight back to the
Fourth Division at the end of the
previous season, manager
Frank Blunstone, who had come to the end of his contract, left
Griffin Park to take over as
youth team manager at
Manchester United. Despite the relegation, fan support for Blunstone was high and the finger of blame pointed at the board of directors, with one letter to the
Middlesex Chronicle summing up the situation that the board's penny-pinching ways since
1967 were "necessary for a couple of years or so, but timidity of this sort prompts me to believe that promotion last year was an unwelcome accident, which has now been rectified". manager Everitt began recruiting new players, including
defender Gordon Riddick for a £4,000 fee and
loanees Michael Brown and
Hughie Reed. but the money was not immediately reinvested in the squad. A 10-match unbeaten run from mid-February through to early-April 1974 finally assured safety and youth products
Richard Poole,
Kevin Harding and
Roy Cotton were able to be blooded, == League table ==