Dean Smith wants his side to start where they left on off on Tuesday as they travel to the AESSEAL New York Stadium on Saturday for a Sky Bet Championship fixture against Rotherham United. Brentford ended a run of three straight league defeats with a convincing 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday night at Griffin Park and Dean wants to continue that form into Saturday’s fixture. Standing in The Bees way is a Rotherham United side that has only won once in 2016 and is currently six points from safety.
The Millers appointed experienced manager Neil Warnock earlier this month and, while Dean thinks the home side will be tough to break down, the former Walsall boss wants his team to get at them from the off: “When you play against teams that are below you in the table there is an expectation that you put in the right performance and get the right result for your team,” said Dean, speaking to Bees Player ahead of the match. “Rotherham United are fighting for their lives in the bottom three of the league at the moment. Neil Warnock has gone in there and they are fighting for points so we know that it will be a tough game.
“Neil makes his teams hard to beat and he is very good at it. The clubs that he has taken over have been hard to beat and we know what to expect from Rotherham. We watched them against Reading and against Birmingham City. We have analysed those games but the most important thing going into the game is to concentrate on ourselves. That is what we try to do going into most of the games. We tried to take the game to Wolves and that is what we are trying to do to Rotherham United as well.”
Tuesday’s win came courtesy of a pair of John Swift goals either side of Sergi Canos’ fourth of the season. After a run of disappointing results Dean was delighted to be able to put on a good performance and be rewarded with the points at Griffin Park. Despite the nature of Tuesday’s performance The Bees’ boss didn’t rule out making changes to a winning side, especially given the run of three games in eight days.
“From the moment that I came in here I always talked about performances and it is always from the performance that you get the result,” said Dean. “The performance was really good on Tuesday and we have come through a tough period of games and not had the results to go with the performances at times. It was very nice to get the result as well and it ended up being a resounding win. I have always been a bit wary of players playing three games in a week. It can take an awful lot out of the legs and we are a young squad as well. There are a few things that we have looked at but we will have to wait and see.”
Brentford tied up long-term deals for Harlee Dean and Nico Yennaris last week and Dean revealed that there are discussions on-going regarding the futures of other members of the first-team squad.
“The signing of Harlee Dean and Nico Yennaris in the last couple of weeks shows that we want to get players committed onto long-term contracts,” said Dean. “The club have been in negotiation with a few but that is down to the co-Directors of Football. We sit down regularly and talk about the next week, the next month and the next year. We will be looking to improve contracts as well. The club has always given long-term contracts and it has shown that it looks towards the future. It is not 18 month or two year contracts that are given out, it is three or four year contracts which makes a statement in itself.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Dean below