Dean Smith said he felt welcome at Brentford from day one as he reflects on his first six months in charge at Griffin Park. The 45-year-old joined The Bees from Walsall in November last year and made an instant impact, being nominated for the December Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month award after losing just one of his first six matches in charge. After the initial high The Bees struggled for results until a fantastic end to the season saw Dean’s side pick up 22 points from a possible 27 in April and May to finish ninth in the table.

Speaking to Bees Player following the conclusion of the season Dean feels that consistency, both on and off the pitch, will be crucial as he aims higher up the table next season. “I have always wanted to be a consistent Head Coach,” said Dean. “That is about not being too high when we win and too low when we lose and taking that onto the pitch. That is what I want from the players as well. If you put in consistent performances week in week out then you normally get results. When I first came I felt there was a sense of being very high when we won and low when we lost. I wanted to find more of an equilibrium, and get the players on more of an even keel, knowing that it would just be about their performances that would affect the result. Towards the end of the season I felt that we got there.

“I am still learning about the players and the players are still learning about me but I have got very good relationships with them that I have had to earn and they have had to earn. It is always a two-way street but it is an enjoyable place to be. One of the things about the club is how welcoming they have been to myself, Richard and our families and that has helped us settle in very quickly.”

Dean had spent nearly five years with The Saddlers prior to his arrival at Griffin Park as a replacement for Lee Carsley. Alongside his assistant Richard O’Kelly, Dean said that his first impressions when he arrived in TW8 were of an ambitious, forward thinking, community based club, values which he was keen to buy in to.

“We were both very excited about coming in,” said Dean. “Richard O’Kelly had coached in the Championship before at Bristol City and Doncaster Rovers but it was my first taste of management at this level so I was excited by the calibre of player I was going to get. I had just left a highly talented group of players at Walsall who I thought would challenge this year, as they have done, so I was excited to see what the difference was. I was very pleased with what I saw. The calibre of player was very good and they seemed enthusiastic and welcoming to me and Richard as well.

“When I first came here the things that struck me were the infrastructure, the staffing and the owner’s ambition of where he wants to go and how he wants to try and get there. It was very appealing but this club has never lost its values. The players are grounded, mixing with the supporters. The supporters can speak to them and the players will speak back. It is a community based football club and that is a big thing for me. We can never lose touch with reality and I think in some of the higher echelons of football now that has been lost.”

After a fine start to his time with The Bees it was a tough January for Dean, and the club as a whole, with speculation surrounding the future of key players such as Toumani Diagouraga, James Tarkowski, and Alan Judge.  In the end Toumani and James would depart Griffin Park for Leeds United and Burnley respectively, something which Dean admitted might have looked from the outside to have affected the team. However the West Bromwich born Head Coach was always confident that there was enough talent left within The Bees dressing room to get results, something illustrated by the fine run of results to the end of the season.

“Players don’t go out looking for excuses, they go out to win games, but Toumani and James had been an integral part of the team this season,” said Dean. “To lose them and not bring anybody in maybe looked to the players and the supporters that we had weakened the team but it was only going to be for a short period of time. We were always going to strengthen and it was a case of economics that we couldn’t. We always felt that we had enough in our squad and that was proved in the last nine games of the season. We needed to become hard to beat because we never lost our attacking mindset and our desire to score goals, but we became very open at times. We got caught out a few times and lost games that we shouldn’t have.”