Brentford Head Coach Dean Smith does not want to rein in his side’s confidence or attacking mentality as they prepare to host Wigan Athletic at Griffin Park on Saturday. The Bees are unbeaten in nine at home and have scored nine in the last two matches in front of the Griffin Park faithful. Now, ahead of the visit of Wigan on Saturday, Dean told Bees Player that he wants his side to continue to work hard, maintain their attacking outlook, and keep on looking for goals.
“The run of form is down to hard work through the end of last season and through pre-season,” said Dean. “We are getting the rewards for working hard but we know we have to continue that work to keep the run going. I have never been one to keep a lid on confidence. If you are confident then be excited about it, go and work harder, and enjoy the rewards you get with it. You need to continue the momentum that you have got because it is a big thing and it can change very quickly. When you are confident, run with it and I am encouraging the players to do just that. Our mentality is to keep pushing for that next goal as we believe that is the way to go and kill games off. It is not in our nature to sit back on a lead. When you do that you invite pressure. There are times when a team plays well and you can do nothing but that. However, our mentality is to try and score more goals.”
The Bees head into the game on Saturday off the back of a 4-1 home win over Reading on Tuesday night. Dean made five changes for the game against The Royals with two of his fresh faces, Josh Clarke and Lasse Vibe, getting on the scoresheet. The Bees Head Coach admitted that Tuesday’s performance had given him a lot of selection dilemma’s but they were problems he was happy to have.
“The lads have come through really well,” said Dean. “We had a good training session and the lads are looking forward to the weekend now. Saturday is one that we are thoroughly looking forward to but also one that we have to work really hard in to get the result. Tuesday gave me really enjoyable problems. Alan McCormack and Josh Clarke came in and did really well. Andreas Bjelland came back and Yoann Barbet was on at the end to see the game out for us. Lasse Vibe playing up front and Romaine Sawyers on the left have given me a lot of selection problems. I have, what I believe is the team, in my head and we will be working on that tomorrow.”
Newly-promoted Wigan lifted themselves off the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship table with a 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday night, former Bee Will Grigg grabbing the late winner. Despite their lowly league position, Dean is wary of the threat they pose in possession but believes his side have the gameplan to secure a fifth win in six at home this campaign.
“Having watched their last few games they play very good football,” said Dean. “It will be another tough game as they have a lot of quality players and they had a really good result against Wolves on Saturday. I played them last year when I was at Walsall. We drew 0-0 at their place but they are a team full of good footballers and they have recruited very well too. It will be interesting to see who they play up front. It could be Adam Le Fondre or Will Grigg coming back, they tell me he is on fire! It will be nice to see him as he came through the Academy at Walsall when he was there. There was a lot made of him during the summer at the Euros and he is scoring goals again this season. Wigan enjoy possession as we do. We are not used to having only 40 per cent possession at home as we did Tuesday but we were clinical with the ball. We had a gameplan of what to do when we won the ball back and we will have a different gameplan now for Wigan.”