Welcome Sunderland. Following on from last weekend’s 1-0 at home to Millwall, Brentford will be looking to make it back to back wins for this first time this season. We’ll also be looking to make it 6 in a row unbeaten in a run that has also seen the win at Bolton and draws with Reading, Derby and Middlesbrough.
In our way stand Sunderland. A name to conjure with the imagination. A club whom we have not played in the league since 1993 (our solitary, pre-Benham, higher tier season in most supporters’ living memory). A club we have not played since January 2006 in the FA Cup when DJ Campbell did ‘that thing’ against Gary Breen. The defender reacting with all the finesse of a turning oil tanker in a moment that will live long in the memory.
A club who are, in all honesty, the biggest thing to fall out of the Premier league since Newcastle United the season before. And now they are mixing it with Brentford.
Let’s be honest. When the fixtures were published, the trip to the Stadium of Light was probably one of the first that Brentford fans looked for. Likewise, the visit from the Black Cats. We all want to see our boys up against the best and, in theory, this is one of those occasions.
Yet, it wold be fair to say, like Aston Villa last season, they are finding the Championship a somewhat different proposition to the top flight they left behind. This is no case of just turning up and bouncing back. England’s second tier being full of cannon fodder for those teams armed with parachute payments is a notion that is long gone.
A solitary league win over Norwich City back in August must now seem a long way away. Since then, there’s been a slump to the point where only basement club Bolton are beneath the Black Cats (with thanks to the Hounslow Chronicle big book of 80s alliteration for that one). Five draws and six defeats make up the rest of their campaign, whilst they’ve shipped 10 goals in their last four games alone. A run that includes a 5-2 hammering at the hands of Ipswich Town.
With Lasse Vibe fit once more and Sergi Canos chomping at the bit to get in on the action, surely this one has all the makings of a Brentford win? The BBC reports that super computer SAM – the Sports Analytics Machine – is calling a 55% chance of home win. The bookies are even less generous.
Checking for research purposes only, The Bees are odds on (4/5) with my own online bookmaker of choice whilst they have Sunderland at an incredible 3/1 to get the win. Three to one. Or in financial terms, invest a tenner and win nothing. Whilst they rarely get it wrong, if ever you wanted an indication of how things are going on Wearside then here it is .
That’s not to take things for granted. Quite the opposite. To borrow a line from Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (the point where the previously wonderful Steven Seagal jumped the shark, and is still jumping), “Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups“. Show any complacency and pay the price.
Seagal – his siege busting days now behind him
Instead, I’m on board with Dean Smith for this one. He used his pre-match press conference yesterday to make a few telling points. The observation that “We have got good technicians within the team,” could have been lifted direct from the big book of Warburton. More important was his awareness that, “Sunderland’s position doesn’t give us any right to do anything. We ask the fans not to be expectant but to get behind us from the start “
As I saw one Twitter observer note yesterday – Football fans? Expectant? As if that would ever happen. But Dean’s right. I can only imagine a similar set up that of when Derby came to visit recently. Backs to the wall and turgid defence as Brentford had a staggering 76% possession.
With the visitors no doubt anxious to avoid defeat, I’m sure today will see The Bees being given the opportunity to try and put the Sunderland goal under siege. The big question being, is Lasse Vibe our own Casey Ryback?
At 3pm, we find out.
He’s just a (poorly photshopped) chef.
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
Nice comments again Nick, though I have to disagree on yuor Steven Seagal comments. He had made some truly awful films before Under SIege 2 (which I quite liked!)
Anyway hears hoping for 3 points today