OneFootball x Hard-Fi: Keith Andrews can send Brentford on a European tour | OneFootball

As part of OneFootball's collaboration series with Shoot Music we're interviewing an artist every week about their love of football.

This week it's Hard-Fi frontman and Brentford fanatic, Richard Archer.

When did you start supporting Brentford and why?

When I was about eight, my cousin used to work for the club and took my friends and I for my birthday - pretty sure it was all our first experience of live professional football. At the time I supported Liverpool but started to realise my dad’s family were from Brentford/Isleworth and this was more real.

What is your favourite memory of supporting Brentford as a child?

Probably that first game. The ground seemed huge and we won! It was against Walsall, I think. 

My cousin bought us all scarves - I’ve still got mine somewhere.

How much do you miss Griffin Park and do you think Brentford have lost something by leaving?

I do miss Griffin Park. There was so much history there and memories and being able to walk out of the stadium straight into the street and to one of the four pubs on each corner was very special. However, it was also past its best; a lot of partial sight lines, massive queues for the bogs etc. 

The GTech has a great atmosphere but with all the benefits of a modern stadium. No regrets.

What are your thoughts on the job Keith Andrews has done this season?

Most Brentford fans will tell you that they trust the process and weren’t unduly worried, but if we’re honest there was so much change in both coaching and playing staff, there were some nerves. Keith has done an awesome job - there are certainly some games this season where we’ve ended up drawing them when perhaps in the past, we’d have lost. 

I think we’ve become harder to beat. Part of the reason is how the club is set up though. Everyone knows how we’re going to play, signings are made and scouting carried out with that in mind. Perhaps that’s why coaches who leave us struggle without that framework?

What are your ambitions for the end of this season?

A European tour would be great, wouldn’t it!

Hard-Fi’s new single, 'Looking For Fun', is out now. The band's fourth studio album, 'Sweating Someone Else’s Fever', is out on June 19 via V2 Records.

You can follow the band on Instagram here: @hardfiofficial