Brentford will be doing all they can over the Christmas period to show their Play-Off mettle according to midfielder Ryan Woods. The Bees welcome Huddersfield Town to Griffin Park on Saturday before entertaining unbeaten league leaders Brighton and Hove Albion on Boxing Day and then travelling to Reading and Birmingham City either side of New Year.
Sitting just five points outside the Play-Off positions Ryan is targeting a run towards the top six and sees no reason why Brentford shouldn’t occupy one of those spots come May.
“I will spend a couple of days with my family at home over the Christmas period but it has to be full focus as usual on football,” said Ryan, speaking to Bees Player. “At the end of the day that is our job and we want to do the best for Brentford. Our main is to get into the Premier League so we have to sacrifice these sort of things to make sure that we are on top of our game and keep picking up the three points over this busy period.
“We have built a lot of momentum over the last ten games but we have to keep pushing on with that and get more points on the board to see us into the Play-Offs. There are some very good teams and some very good individuals but I can’t see any in this league who are better than us. We play some very good football and we are a team to be feared. Our aim is to win as many games as we can starting tomorrow.”
Brentford go into their game against The Terriers on the back of only their second defeat in eleven Sky Bet Championship matches after a 3-2 reverse at Cardiff City on Tuesday night.
Trailing 2-0 at the break goals from Jake Bidwell and John Swift levelled things late on, only for Kenwyne Jones to net in injury time to snatch the points.
Ryan said that the first-half performance at the Cardiff City Stadium was not good enough but the second-half showing was something they could take great pride from.
“Throughout the team you have to be at it or you aren’t going to win the game,” said Ryan. “Fortunately for us we have been at it for the last month and look at where we are now. There is no reason for us not to be confident. We were really unfortunate to lose the game in the end. We didn’t really get going in the first-half and were quite bad actually but second-half we pulled it back together especially after the hour. We started to play some good stuff and it was a real sucker punch to go down at the end. However the match just shows the character of the lads that we can come back from 2-0 down. We can only take the positives out of that game now.”
Ryan has been able to cement a place in the starting eleven over the past couple of months after joining in September and feels that he is adapting well to life in the second tier.
With Alan McCormack and Josh McEachran both returning to contention for a starting spot, Ryan knows that he cannot afford to let up if he wants to keep his place.
“The last couple of months have been really good,” said Ryan. “My main aim when I came was to nail a starting position down in the side and I think that I have managed to do that in the last couple of weeks. I just have to keep learning in training and in every game that I play in given the standard that I am playing with and against.
“If you make a mistake in this league then nine times out of ten you are going to get punished for it. That is the main learning curve for me. Luckily I managed to get that out of my system early on and hopefully it won’t happen again. As a player you have to relish competition for places. With Josh McEachran and Alan McCormack coming back that is only good for me to make sure that I am at it every day at training. That will help to keep me in the side and that is something that I am definitely looking to do.”
You can view the full interview with Ryan below:
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