Toumani Diagouraga located Alan Judge with a perfectly-weighted pass – a trivela, some might say.

Judge raced down the left and hit a first-time cross.

Clint Hill tracked Marco Djuricin all the way, but could not prevent the striker getting to the ball first and prodding it past Rob Green in goal.

Djuricin got to his feet in front of the Ealing Road terrace, jumping, beating his chest, swinging his arms. He knew he had scored an important goal – one against fierce local rivals always is.

But it was only afterwards that he discovered just how important.

“Peter Gilham had tears in his eyes when he came to me and said, ‘Marco, you don’t know what you did’,” says Djuricin as he relives that night. “He was so proud - he said thank you maybe 10 times!”

It was Friday 30 October 2015 – the night Brentford beat QPR 1-0 at Griffin Park. The night they won their first west London derby in 50 years.

“I remember the goal like it was yesterday,” says the Austrian, who retired from professional football in the summer, aged 33.

“Alan was an excellent player and he knew that every time I would come to the first post. When I saw him on the left, I was sprinting and fighting in the middle. It was a very emotional goal.

“And Griffin Park was so nice. It was very old, but I liked it because now every stadium looks the same. It was typical English – the fans can almost touch you!

“The fans in England are different because they remember you and they have respect. In modern football, you win yesterday and nobody is interested today.

“I remember when I was playing at Grasshoppers, the Brentford B team were playing against the U21s, and I saw some guys from Brentford. The first thing some of them said to me was: ‘Hey, you’re the guy that scored against QPR!’

“It’s a very nice honour. I will never forget this.”

The goal that secured Djuricin’s place in Brentford history came two months after his “dream” move to England, on a season-long loan from Red Bull Salzburg.

The switch had been in the pipeline for a little while before it came to fruition.

“I had contact with Matthew Benham and Rasmus Ankersen when I was playing for Sturm Graz and there was a lot of interest. We met each other and it was very nice, but I was not sure if I would go there because, physically, it was tough for me,” he says.

“Then I joined Red Bull Salzburg and, like six months later, I had the opportunity again with Brentford and I said I wanted to do it. This time, I had an offer from Frosinone in Serie A. This was also my dream to play in Italy, but England is the home of football so I knew I needed to do it.

“The situation at Red Bull was that we were not playing Champions League or Europa League and I had already won the Austrian Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup, so I was thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ I wasn’t being arrogant, but I needed a new challenge and I thought, ‘Let’s try the hard way’ in England.”

Djuricin scored on his debut in a 1-1 draw against Leeds at Elland Road. “That was crazy. It still gives me goosebumps.”

And he soon found his preconceptions about the rigours of English football to be true.

“After one month, I went out for the first time in London because I was really tired!” he says, with a laugh.

“I played for a long time in the second division in Germany, but the Championship was the strongest second division in the world, for me.

“At Red Bull, we had a really strong team and the intensity was very high. We played with Adi Hütter, where we pressed everywhere, but then I came to England and it was so different because the intensity was higher.

“The technical stuff was not like at Red Bull, maybe, but the intensity was higher.

“I liked the atmosphere in the stadiums. It was different to Germany because the fans sing for 90 minutes, but in England it’s very positive; you make a good pass or a good cross or a good shot and the fans are very positive.”

By the time of the QPR game, Djuricin was already working under his second manager, with Marinus Dijkhuizen replaced in the interim by Lee Carsley.

“Marinus was good for me and good for the European players, but I had a feeling from the English players that they didn’t like how he wanted to play,” he admits.

“And when you don’t have the results on your side, you need to change something. I was in teams before where they change the manager a lot, so this is football. I think we didn’t play so well and what can you do when the club say they need another coach? You need to respect this.

“Lee Carsley came in afterwards and we had a really good relationship. I think he loved me as a player, so that was good for me.”

But Djuricin played only one more full game before he sustained an ankle ligament injury away at Blackburn.

It was an injury that, ultimately, did not require surgery, but it was one that kept him out for just over two months.

And, by the time he made his return – in a 1-0 FA Cup third-round defeat to Walsall in January 2016 – things had changed.

“At this time, we spoke with Red Bull as Brentford wanted to take me on a fixed contract, then this happened. It was not my fault I got injured, but this is the risk of football," Djuricin explains.

“It was maybe not so good for me, looking back, because I said I wanted to stay at Brentford – and I had three years on my contract at Red Bull!

“Also, I’m honest and I need to say Scott Hogan was so strong at this time. He scored a lot of goals and I was so happy for him because after so long not playing football, he came back so well.

“We also had a new coach with Dean Smith, who was a very good guy.”

Having featured in eight of the 10 Championship games he was available for after returning from injury, Djuricin did not play a league game from 6 March until 23 April 2016.

He knew his time at the club was coming to an end.

“Normally when you are injured for two or three months, you need three months until you are fully fit again. But I had no time anymore and I wasn’t at my best," he says.

“Of course I was sad, but I need to say big respect to Dean because he said: ‘Hey, Marco, we won’t take you on a fixed contract, but you will have two or three games’.

“I never had this in my career again. In other teams, they say nothing to you and then you will never play.”

In his penultimate game, Djuricin came off the bench to replace Lasse Vibe and assisted Ryan Woods’ goal in a 4-1 win away at MK Dons. In his final match, he played the full 90 minutes of a 2-0 defeat away at Hull.

And so his time in England came to an end. For the most part, it did not pan out the way either party would have hoped. But he achieved his goal of playing English football. That was the main thing.

“I’m very happy I played in England. My son is seven now and when I told him I played for Brentford, he was like ‘What?! Wow!’,” Djuricin adds.

“I was really fit when I came to Brentford, but I learned there that there’s no end level of fitness and you can always achieve more. This was the lesson for my whole career.

“And when a player wants to prepare for the Premier League, he needs to go to the Championship.

“I look back at my time at Brentford only positively. Griffin Park under the lights was amazing. I could look directly into the stadium from my apartment. The city, the people, Peter Gilham, Bob [Oteng] the kitman.

“Only positive vibes. It was a very nice adventure for me.”