Brentford Head Coach Dean Smith hopes to take the positives from last week’s performances against Burton Albion, Bristol City, and Leeds United into Monday’s Boxing Day encounter with Cardiff City at Griffin Park. The Bees were unlucky only to take six points from the week as victory over The Brewers and The Robins was followed up by a last-minute defeat at Elland Road. Now, having had time to review the games, Dean is hoping to see those same performance levels when his side take on The Bluebirds.
“It was good to give the lads a couple of days off so they could recharge their batteries and then get back on the training ground,” said Dean, speaking to Bees Player. “From last week we could take the understanding of the players to their roles and responsibilities and how the team performed. There was a lot of effort put in by everybody involved: some of the distances and high speed running that we covered was really good. That showed just how much it meant to the players to get back to performing well and getting results. There are certainly things we need to improve on but, watching the game back again, there were a lot of good things. The three performances definitely give the players confidence and they were disappointed at the end against Leeds United. I was disappointed for them because we didn’t deserve that. The performances, how we have been doing, and how we have been training have been very good.”
Heading to West London on Boxing Day are Cardiff City who have spent much of this season looking up at the rest of the division from the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone. However, since appointing the vastly experienced Neil Warnock in October, The Bluebirds have picked up four wins and three draws from 11 games to move out of the bottom three. Dean is not one for taking City lightly but feels there is enough in his squad to follow up the home win over Burton with another three point haul at Griffin Park.
“We have two home games on the spin now and we are looking forward to that,” said Dean. “The Boxing Day fixture is always one to relish. Last year we played Brighton and Hove Albion, who were flying at the time, at home and, although it finished 0-0, we were excellent on the day. More of the same would certainly help us get the result against a hard-working Cardiff City team. You only have to look at what Neil Warnock did at Rotherham United last season. When he went in there nobody gave them a chance of staying up. He got everybody behind them and working hard, as he does. Cardiff have had a couple of results go the wrong way for them but you can see the character in them, coming back from 3-1 down to 3-3 last week. They were unfortunate to concede in the 95th minute but they certainly gave it a go. They have got some really good players but we believe that we have too. We have to take that confidence and the performances from the last three games into Boxing Day.”
The match against Cardiff starts a run of four games in 14 days taking in home games against Norwich City and Eastleigh, the latter in the Emirates FA Cup, either side of a trip to Birmingham City. Despite having games coming thick and fast, Dean feels it is important to give his players as much time as possible with their families over the festive period.
“Three games in a week is tough because the Championship is so demanding,” said Dean. “The Christmas period has its own demands. To kick off at 5 30pm on New Year’s Eve and then at 3pm two days later will be tough so the squad will have to be utilised. We will work hard today and then the two days leading up to Christmas Day. We will come in early and work through some set-pieces before the game and then go through the game. I have been at too many clubs where you have players racing around trying to get to their Christmas dinners with the family. I don’t think you get an awful lot from the players by doing that. It is better for them to relax and make sure they are ready for the game on Boxing Day.”