Ryan Woods believes that Brentford's two remaining friendly matches will be all about fine tuning as Dean Smith’s side gear up for the new Sky Bet Championship season. Sky Bet League One side Peterborough United are the visitors to Griffin Park this evening before the squad heads to South London on Saturday for a match against another Third tier side, Millwall. With the bulk of the fitness work now behind them, Ryan feels these next two games are a chance for The Bees to really put into practice what they have been working on tactically in training.
Speaking to Bees Player ahead of the match, Ryan said: “Training has been tough as usual. We have played a few more matches now to get our legs back. We are working on things in training that perhaps we didn’t do last season. That is all coming together now and we are just trying to put it into match specific situations. In patches you can see that it is coming off. It is coming off in training and now we just have to take it into games and I am sure that it will help us throughout the season. I am sure that the gaffer’s ideas will work. We tried to do it against Kaiserslautern and we will try to do it against Peterborough tonight and Millwall on Saturday. Then we can hopefully take it into the game against Huddersfield Town.”
The Bees have been steadily building towards the new campaign under Dean Smith over the last four weeks. 2. Bundesliga side VFL Bochum were beaten 1-0 in Germany 13 days ago and that has been followed up by 1-1 draws against Wycombe Wanderers and 1.FC Kaiserslautern over the last week. Ryan feels the signs are there that everything is heading in the right direction ahead of the trip to Huddersfield Town for the league opener on 6 August.
“Sometimes we are a little slow to react to things but for the majority of time we look sharp and we look like we are ready to go now,” said Ryan. “These two games are only going to improve that and I think we will be more than ready for Huddersfield Town. I have played against Peterborough United and Millwall before and they are both decent sides. Millwall were in the Championship not too long ago and I am sure that it will be a good test for us as will Peterborough United. We are looking forward to playing matches again, every Tuesday and Saturday and we are just looking to get as much out of it as we can.”
Like all his teammates, Ryan has been carefully managed over pre-season to ensure that he gets the right amount of playing time ahead of the new campaign. The 22-year-old missed only one league game last season after joining in September from Shrewsbury Town and, although he wants to play as much football as he can, knows it is important to do things right ahead of the marathon which is the league season.
“I played 45 minutes in the first friendly, 60 in the second, 90 against Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night, and I got another half an hour on Saturday,” said Ryan. “I am hoping to get as much playing time as I can against Peterborough United and Millwall and then fingers crossed I can be in the starting XI for the game against Huddersfield Town. Nowadays you have to look after yourself as well as telling the staff and having your input into things. Saturday was maybe a good game for me not to get as many minutes because of the 90 minutes against Wycombe Wanderers. It was very hot and it did take a lot out of people. You have to take things steady sometimes although you want to play as much as you can. You have to put it in the right proportions really.”