Brentford Head Coach Dean Smith doesn’t believe that either The Bees or Norwich City’s recent form makes them an easy touch as they head into Saturday’s meeting at Carrow Road. The Canaries are without a win since mid-October while Dean’s side go into Saturday’s game looking for a first win in four. Speaking to Bees Player ahead of the match, Dean said he felt his side were close to turning the corner and is hopeful they can do so on Saturday against Alex Neil’s side.
“Norwich have lost five on the spin and we have lost three,” said Dean. “That doesn’t make poor teams: I am sure that anybody who plays Norwich or us knows they are in for a tough game. I watched their last couple of games: they had a man sent off in the first minute against QPR and were very unfortunate against Derby. They have got some very good players all over the pitch. We will need a good performance if we want to win the game. They have hit a blip, much like ourselves, but it doesn’t take much to get out of that. It is up to us, and what we do, to make sure that we come out of that blip not them. Everybody who was available last week is available. Sam Saunders and Callum Elder have been training. The game will probably come too quickly for Callum as he hasn’t played for a while.”
Last Saturday saw Birmingham City leave Griffin Park with the three points after a fortuitous 2-1 win: Clayton Donaldson and Ryan Shotton on target for Blues before Scott Hogan pulled one back late on for The Bees. Dean revealed that Monday morning's debrief of the match had shown his side had plenty of positives to take from their performance.
“I’m not a big one for long chats in the dressing room after the game because it is too emotional and I can’t change anything in that moment in time,” said Dean. “We spoke at length on Monday and my feeling was that sometimes we can catastrophise defeats. That, in itself, can lead to a demise in confidence. We spoke about the positives of what we did against Birmingham City. We made the coaching staff from a top four team come and apologise for what they called daylight robbery. I showed the players the chances we created. I thought tactically we were better than them too. If we keep doing that we will get performances and we will get results. I was really pleased with the new formation and I thought it fit really well with the players. I certainly feel the players have got a lot of confidence from that. It is one that we can work with that is for sure.”
This week saw Dean celebrate his first anniversary as Brentford boss following his move from Walsall last November. While he admitted the Birmingham City result did dampen the celebrations a little bit, Dean still feels plenty of progress has been made, with plenty more still to come.
“It wasn’t such a happy anniversary as we got beat by Birmingham City on Saturday which was a big disappointment,” said Dean. “It has been a wonderful year. It’s been really enjoyable and interesting. It is an interesting club, which has great ideas, and I feel that we are progressing. It feels like it is a better place to be around at the moment: people are all pushing in the same direction. I can see big things for the football club and I hope to remain a part of that, driving it on, making sure that the players get better. Our dream is to get into the Premier League. It is my job to get the best out of the players that we have got and make them consistent. Our performances, in general, have been consistent but the results haven’t and that’s what we need to put right.”