Dean Smith has backed his side to come out firing at the iPro Stadium on Tuesday as they look to bounce back from Saturday’s defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The Bees were on the end of a 3-1 defeat in the North East over the weekend and now travel down the M1 to take on a Derby side who picked up their first home league win of the season on Saturday after a 1-0 success over Leeds United. Speaking to Bees Player after Saturday’s match, Dean admitted the visit to the East Midlands will be another tough test but one his side will be ready for.
“They have a new manager in charge now in Steve McClaren,” said Dean. “He was a bit of a fans’ favourite before he left to come to Newcastle United. They got a result [on Saturday] so we know that it will be a tough place to go. They have got a lot of good players. You could see the quality that Newcastle United have and Derby have got that quality too. We have to be at our best. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because of the goals that we gave Newcastle. I am sure that we won’t. We will put it to bed tomorrow morning and come out firing on Tuesday.”
The Bees decided not to make the 300 mile return trip from Newcastle on Saturday, preferring instead to stay up between the two matches. Dean felt, given the amount of travelling involved, it made more sense to stay away to help the side fully prepare for the visit to the iPro.
“I didn’t want to be travelling a number of hours back home and then getting them in tomorrow morning,” said Dean. “I felt it would be better for us if we were all there together. We have a training session planned for Sunday and one planned for Birmingham on Monday to get ready for the Derby County game.”
Dean will be forced into a defensive change as Harlee Dean picked up his fifth yellow card of the season on Saturday meaning the 25-year-old will miss Tuesday’s match through suspension. On top of that Andreas Bjelland is an injury concern after he was withdrawn late on however Dean is happy with the defensive cover he has within the squad.
“Andreas Bjelland has been nursing an ankle for the last two weeks and he just felt it,” said Dean. “We didn’t really want to take any more risks with that so we brought Yoann Barbet on. As we all know we have got four very good centre-halves at the football club at the moment so we can certainly handle one of them being out.”