Saturday morning. Match day. Except, of course, it isn’t. Brentford fans have to wait an extra day for the chance to see if we can match Tuesday night’s annihilation of Aston Villa. This time around, the visitors are none other than Brighton. A team who, whilst managing to reel in and then fend off long term runaway leaders Newcastle United, went down 3-1 at Huddersfield Town in front of the Sky TV cameras on Thursday night.
Will the Seagulls fall victim to Dean’s killer Bees?
There’ll never be a better time for the Bees to take on the Seagulls. Brentford blew away Aston Villa on Tuesday night as though they were nothing more inconvenient than an empty crisp packet. 3-0 really doesn’t even begin to do justice to a scoreline that saw added width courtesy of Florian Jozefzoon and the wonderful Jota.
It was something noted by Dean, who used his press conference to note that “They give us an extra dimension and that enabled me to flip the system on Tuesday” (and, as ever, you can read his full interview on ‘official’).
With one defender less and more room in the middle of the pitch, Dean set his team up in much more balanced and positive formation than we’d seen in a long time. The results more than justified the tactical reshuffle. And this is before the returning Sergi Canos has even got a look in. Whilst I can’t imagine he’ll start in this one, I can already hear the reception he’ll get coming off the bench.
Jota was back in the starting XI on Tuesday night
The big question now being whether it was a one off or if we can expect more of the same against Brighton? I hope so. Desperately. Tuesday night saw genuinely exciting football as the Bees, perhaps with a point to prove to Scott Hogan, tore Villa a new one.
Brighton, meanwhile, may well be back in second place by the time we cross paths. Newcastle United play on Saturday although a visit from Derby County won’t be the easiest fixture in the calendar. Yet if they can get the win, that adds the pressure to Albion. Especially if third placed Reading can also do the business at hapless Ipswich Town. A win for the Royals will take them to within just two points of Brighton.
Then, of course, we’ve got Thursday night to consider. Nobody needs a midweek trip to Huddersfield at the best of times, let alone when you then put in a performance that Chris Hughton would later describe saying, “Every now and again you get a real bad one, and that was a real bad one.”
Perhaps he should compare notes with Steve Bruce ! To compound their misery, highly rated defender Lewis Dunk was shown the red card so misses out at Griffin Park.
One can’t help but think Brighton will be exhausted. With little over 48 hours to recover from the game and subsequent trip back from Yorkshire to the South coast, they are back on the road again. Whilst we’ve all been victims to the vagaries of TV scheduling, this one seems extreme and yet another example of the TV companies putting teams and fans firmly in second place.
The question being if Dean Smith and his team can take advantage of this gift we’ve been offered. Brentford have already beaten Brighton in the corresponding fixture – becoming the only team this season to leave the Amex with all three points. Can we now become the first to do the double over the Seagulls? Could Sergi cause havoc in the final twenty minutes as tiredness starts to tell?
At odds of 11/5 with club sponsors 888, it seems to be free money for anybody looking to invest. Surely that’s too generous a price?
On Sunday afternoon, we find out.
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
Don’t we all hope this optimism is justified Nick!
My genuine fear is that Tuesday night was a one-off after a season of (mostly) mediocrity. Really (obviously) hope I’m wrong, but it seems that Dean has always been far too slow when we’re doing badly to tinker with his tactics and experiment with his players. Did we get lucky on Tuesday? You’re quite right:- tomorrow will tell.
On the bright side, just when I/we start to feel the ‘Brentford Revolution’ is foundering, comes news of a really exciting crop of young players seemingly developed as a direct result of our new youth policy.
But (here he goes again), why are the ‘Midlands Wolves’ starting to work out which one of them is going to be the first to sign one of the best of ’em – Luke Dunn?
Can you tell me why WE haven’t offered him a contract when others have already seen his obvious potential…?
Thanks Mark. Let’s hope Dean’s slow reaction speed continues and he sticks with the new formation for a while.
As for contract talk – perhaps John Egan was the first of many, now that we know the make up of the current squad.
Very good point and one I share Mark. We now have a B team specifically designed to get fringe players and youngsters up to speed and competing for a place in the first team. We got rid of the academy because it was all too easy for top talent to be taken off our hands by bigger clubs for a nominal fee. This system was supposed to mitigate against this happening yet Luke Dunn, a highly rated 17 y.o. Looks to be the latest talent drain from the club as he’s training with Birmingham City, and also being eyed up by Wolves & West Brom. Give him a professional contract if he’s got potential. It doesn’t have to be a salary that breaks our bank
It would be a step backwards to re-accommodate 3 CB’s tomorrow, after it was clear Tuesday that we finally have the personnel to make full use of attacking the wings, thus also being able to give McEachran more space to make those passes. Egan should be the unlucky man, joining the other unlucky man, Barbet on the sidelines.
Also be interesting to see how we use Sergi with rumours that he would be used as an option up top, as we are so limited in that position.
I cannot understand why we are not trying to keep Luke Dunn ? Looking forward to seeing Sergi Canos and Jota link up at some stage to-morrow if not from the KO.