Dean Smith thinks it will be a special afternoon at Loftus Road on Saturday as Brentford make the short trip to W12 to take on local rivals Queens Park Rangers in the Sky Bet Championship. Around 3,000 Brentford fans will also be making the trip as The Bees visit their West London neighbours for the first time in more than 12 years. Speaking ahead of the match Dean said it would mean everything to the players, staff and supporters to get the three points after a tough run in recent weeks.
“I am looking forward to the atmosphere that we will have at Loftus Road on Saturday,” said Dean. “To go to our neighbours and get a good result and performance would be extra special. We know how much the match means to supporters. I spoke to Lee Carsley about the home game and how much it meant to everybody to win then. To do the double over them would be one to savour. I have had a good idea of the team all week. We have got players coming back like Alan McCormack who can give us a bit more steel and experience. Alan played an hour in a Development Squad game on Monday and I am sure that he will jumping in front of my office tomorrow telling me how fit he is but I will have to make a decision on whether he is fit enough to play.
“By not playing on Tuesday night we dropped three places so the players are itching to put things right. I went to watch Rangers and they had a good result and a good performance. I have told the players how tough it will be but it is one that we are fully capable of winning.”
The Bees go into the match having won one of the last seven league matches but Dean feels that victory on Saturday would be the perfect pick-me-up for the whole club. The Bees Head Coach feels that as long as his side puts in a good performance then they give themselves a real chance of leaving with the points.
“There has been a lot to deal with so far,” said Dean. “We have lost some players and we have tried to get some players in. Our form has been up and down: we started really well but we are not on a great run at the moment. It has certainly been a learning curve and been very interesting. From the moment that I came the people at the football club have been brilliant and they continue to be so.
“We have a project that we are working towards but the immediate is to get three points against our local rivals on Saturday. I couldn’t think of a better game to pick for us. You have a weekly pressure with every game that you go in to. We are in a results based industry so you have to go and get results but there is also a project that you are working towards as well. I like to concentrate on performances because without them you rarely get results. There are a lot of tangibles that determine results that you can’t control so we will continue to control our performances.”
Brentford have suffered consecutive defeats in the last two matches against sides currently occupying relegation positions in the Sky Bet Championship after 2-1 reversals to Rotherham United and Charlton Athletic. Dean has identified a lack of a clinical edge as an issue in recent weeks and hopes that a return to goalscoring form will set the club off on a good run of form.
“There is concern that we haven’t won the last two games when the expectancy is to beat Rotherham United and Charlton Athletic,” said Dean. “We didn’t deserve to lose the game. While we didn’t play as well as we would have wanted to play they had three entries into our penalty box. We need to be doing better in front of goal. We are not scoring at a great rate at the moment but once we start taking our chances there is no reason we can’t go on a good run. We saw the performance levels between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Rotherham United and we have to be more consistent in what we do.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Dean below