Dean Smith thinks Brentford will have to be at their best defensively as they head to Sheffield Wednesday in the Sky Bet Championship this Saturday. The Owls are unbeaten in six and last suffered defeat at Hillsborough back in August and, speaking to Bees Player ahead of the match, Dean said that he expects a tough match against a side full of attacking potential.

“Something I have noticed a lot in this league is that teams are quite defensive and rely quite a bit on their goalscorers,” said Dean. “They bank up, make it difficult and then counter-attack. I went to watch Birmingham City vs Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. They have gone and spent a lot of money on getting Gary Hooper. I know a lot about him because I had him at Leyton Orient earlier in his career and you can always see the ability that he has got. They have got players who can open teams up and score goals: Hooper, Fernando Forestieri and Ross Wallace. Defensively we know that we have to be at our best and we have been working hard on that.”

The Bees go into Saturday’s match on the back of a 3-0 defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion last Friday. Brentford had the Lions share of possession at The AMEX Stadium but were unable to create much in the way of goal-scoring opportunities. Dean said that the team have been working hard on ways to turn that possession into goals ahead of the trip to South Yorkshire.

“We were disappointed with the result last week but we have been working to put it right,” said Dean. “We gave poor goals away and we didn’t penetrate but we have to be doing something right when we have 65 per cent possession and the stats tell us we were on top for most of the game. We got counter-attacked a lot, we are trying to right that and we are working very hard at that. I am not a massive fan of possession stats because they don’t always mean you will win the game but the majority of time when you do have more of the ball you will create more chances and score.”

There has been positive news on the injury front in recent weeks with Scott Hogan returning to full training and Alan McCormack approaching a return to fitness. Dean has been delighted with how Scott has returned to training and feels that his excitement to be back has been rubbing off on his teammates.

“Scott Hogan has really impressed in training so far but it is kid gloves with him so far as he has a few Development Squad games he has to take part in first before he is near," said Dean. "He has really impressed in training and the frustration of being out for so long is there for all to see. I made a point today to the players about getting out on the training ground and enjoying every training session because Scott will tell you what it is like when you are not. He is a bundle of enthusiasm out there. The three things that I ask for are attitude, application and enthusiasm and from Scott you get all of that. Josh McEachran trained today and got through the majority of the session. It was his first day back this week so I will have another look at him tomorrow and decide if he is fit or not. It will be good to have Alan McCormack back as well. He starts his training with us next week. He has had a couple of knock-backs with his calf: we keep thinking that he is there but then he suffers a set-back. It will be nice to have him back next week and pushing for contention.”

Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Dean below