Dean Smith thinks playing in front of a passionate Griffin Park crowd could prove to be the catalyst as Brentford look for a return to winning ways against Derby County this Saturday. The Bees haven’t had a home match since the 26 January and have lost their last two matches away from home. Now back in front of a packed crowd at Griffin Park, Dean is hopeful that support can help the side register the three points.
“I know that it is only a few weeks but it seems like a long time since we have been at home,” said Dean. “It will be nice to get a win at home in front of our fans. We have gone through a period of time now where we have played a lot of the teams in and around the top six. We have come through with a few bumps and bruises so it will be important to get back onto the winning track at home. The players are really looking forward to playing at Griffin Park as we feel that is where our strength lies. We have a partisan crowd who will always get behind us. The unique nature of Griffin Park gives us an advantage over the opposition when they come here.”
The Bees go into the match after conceding four in defeat to Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday at Hillsborough. Yoann Barbet saw red inside six minutes and the home side, unbeaten since August on their own patch, then eased to victory thanks to goals from Fernando Forestieri, Gary Hooper, Kieran Lee and Lucas Joao. Dean said the early red card completely changed the side’s game-plan but didn’t feel there was enough evidence to appeal the decision.
“The game-plan went out of the window after six minutes last week but the manner of the goals that we conceded was not very good and we have done some work on that,” said Dean. “We didn’t think about appealing. The wording for the appeals procedure is that it has to be an obvious mistake from the referee. For me it was an assumption that the referee had seen a foul, he hadn’t seen a foul. As I said after the game, and my opinion hasn’t changed, he couldn’t make that decision from where he was. If the linesman had made the decision that would have been ok. It doesn’t matter if they looked back after the game and said that they made the right decision, my problem is that it wasn’t the referees decision to make.”
The Rams come into the match having failed to win in the league since Boxing Day and with their position in the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off places looking ever more vulnerable. To try and arrest the slide County parted company with Head Coach Paul Clement earlier this month and replaced him with Academy coach Darren Wassall. Dean said he was as shocked as anyone to see Paul lose his job but thinks that Derby’s strength in depth still makes them a dangerous opponent despite their run of form.
“We have been working on some things to get the better of Derby and there are a number of players who will have opportunities,” said Dean. “I think it shocked everyone with Paul leaving his role a few weeks ago. Darren Wassall has come in and he will have his own ideas. They got beaten last week and he will be looking for a reaction from that. They have gone five or six games without a win and have gone from a position of pushing for the top two to being sixth in the league now. They will want to put that right straight away. You only have to look at their squad list to know what an excellent squad list it is.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Dean below