For some reason, I enjoy Brentford coming to town. They’re a decent bunch and when I’ve travelled down to Brentford in the last couple of seasons, their fans have always been hospitable and happy to talk about football without it ever getting antagonistic. A shared frustration of Mark Warburton always adds to the connection. I’ve a fair amount of respect for Brentford as a club and you can’t knock their year on year improvement in The Championship. It was notable to see the development of their new stadium en route to Fulham earlier in the season and it’ll be a shame to see the terraces go at Griffin Park. I’ve no doubt though that they’re moving on to bigger and better things.

It seems this season they’ve decided to break the mould a little and have spent more than they have in the club’s history, adding most notably Pontus Jansson to their side. I watched them against Barnsley last season and despite the torrential rain and drenched surface, Brentford admirably stuck to their principals and played football as much as they could. They’ve got three top quality players in Canos, Watkins and Benrahma and Forest will have their hands full in trying to nullify them. I’m definitely glad to see the back of Romaine Sawyers in a Brentford shirt but that said; he’s still managed to keep his record up of giving us a lesson albeit wearing a West Brom shirt on the opening day.

I called this one right last season with a Forest home win and I’ll go for us to nick it again; this time with a 3-2 win. Joe Lolley and Lewis Grabban to get the goals. I’m fully expecting a decent game and an afternoon of entertainment.

Billy ‘the Bee’ Grant provides his thoughts on Saturday from a Bees perspective.

How is your season shaping up? e.g, form, style, manager, signings, etc. What are your expectations for the season?

It’s a funny old season. There was lots of hope as we were very active in the transfer market. Having made around £60m in the last two windows selling players like Chris Mepham (£15m – Bournemouth), Neal Maupay (£20m – Brighton) and Ezri Konsa (£12m – Aston Villa), we ended up spending around £30m in total.

We bought ten players including Pontus Jansson in (£4.5m – Leeds). Brian ‘from Troyes’ Mbuemo (£6m – Troyes). Mattias Jensen (£3.5m – Celta Vigo) and Christian Nörgaard (£3m – Fiorentina).

We started slowly – playing some decent football but not really having that killer edge to us. Plus our midfield just wasn’t the same as back in the day. Our 1-0 home defeat to Birmingham on the opening day of the season should have been a warning call. They literally did feck all for the whole match bar score a wonder goal … with a header .. from about 25 yards.

I think we hit the woodwork two or three times. If you believe in stats, the stats people had to get their microscopes out – Birmingham’s xG was so minuscule (0.01 I believe), it was already declared a record low for the season. And we still had 45 games to play. Just to give you an idea of just how bad they were. When Blues played Forest, their xG was 0.38. Pretty poor. You smashed them 3-0. At 0.01 they were actually (on paper) FORTY times WORSE against us and won. They literally didn’t even venture near our goal. Even when they scored.

When we went on that awful run where we were losing every game last season, we switched to three at the back. It worked. We steadied the ship. Then started playing some really decent football. There is an argument to say we have decide to stick with three at the back for too long now without switching it. And it has cost us. Teams have, at times, dominated us in midfield and that was never the case before. We were always the dominant party in midfield – keeping hold of the ball and playing it around with ease.

The head coach Thomas Frank will have been in the job pretty much a year now. This is the season to see what he’s really like. He inherited Dean Smith’s team last season (albeit to be honest it wasn’t only Smith as there is a whole back team at Brentford who are responsible for the scouting and player acquisition).

This season, it is his team. He would have had some input in the players and type of players that he wanted. Now he is trying to get them to play his way. And it seems to be taking a bit of time.

Derby came to Griffin Park and we wiped the floor with them – beating them 3-0. But then they weren’t very good. We also beat Boro who literally beat us every season. Looking back now, they weren’t very good either.

I do get the fact that the players haven’t gelled. Many of them are new to The Championship and it is taking them some time to get used to the style of football. The intensity of the matches. The passages of play. At the same time, there has been a line of thought from Bees fans .. if you start to pay £5m and £6m for players as opposed to your usual £1.5m and £2m, should these players not be more ‘match ready’? The reality is we will have more idea of how good we are going into November. A good few months with this team playing together should be plenty of time to iron out the older creases.

What was the team’s performance like in your last outing?

Well after 60 seconds of the Barnsley match we were thinking ’Same old Brentford’ as they scored a goal … from about 25 yards .. in the top corner. With their first attack. Great goal. But frustrating.

But to be fair to Brentford, they fought back.

The formation switched for the first time in nearly a year back to 4-3-3 with Dalsgaard moving over – out of the three at the back to his traditional left back role. Sergi Canos, who has been playing wing-back in the 3 at the back formation, moved forward into his traditional winger role. And he was tremendous. Causing Barnsley all sorts of problems.

Ollie Watkins got a hat trick. He has been forced to switch roles to a striker from out wide after the sale of Maupay. And the fact that our replacement signing fell through at the last minute. To be fair, he’s done excellent. Top scorer in the league with 7 goals. He even admits that he’s still learning and has asked the fans to be patient with him as this is not his normal position.

The only fear for us is no-one else is scoring. Brian from Troyes scored against Derby. But I believe that is it. But I can’t knock the team for the last performance. Other than giving away soft (but well taken) goals like the ones against Birmingham, Charlton and Barnsley, we’ve actually been solid defensively. What we have lost in mobility – the confidence to play the ball out from the back – we have gained in traditional defensive steel. Which is what we have needed for quite a few years now.

What are the key strengths and weaknesses of your team? Who do forest fans need to be worried about the most?

Obviously Ollie Watkins is on fire this season. He’s definitely one to watch out for. His conversion rate is very good. I believe he scored over 80% of the chances he gets. So he doesn’t get as many chances in his new position. But the chances he does get, he’s putting them away.

Said Benrahma is truly a brilliant player. He got injured in April. And only just got back playing regular football a few weeks ago. His first few games were so so. However, he really started to get motoring against Barnsley. And in the second half, he was all over the place. Nutmegging the opposition. Playing his team mates in with superb passes. He even should have scored picking up the rebound after Ollie Watkins hit the post and crossbar in quick succession.

The lack of Benrahma in the side may have been one of the reasons why we have started so slowly. When teams come to try and frustrate us, he is one players who is – when he is on his A game – unable to unpick them.

I shouldn’t really say thus but … he won’t be with us for much longer. We already turned down a bit of around £15m for him. It’s only a matter of time before a Premier League team comes knocking again.

What are your thoughts on Forest?

Fair play to Lamouchi, he has got your rather large squad firing on most of your cylinders this season. You seem to have worked out a way to ‘frustrate and nick’ – keeping it tight at the back whilst going forward and nicking a goal for a point or three. The fact that you have remained unbeaten for so many games means that there is a strong mentality there and you are hard to beat.

You also have some quality players in there. Grabban we know from when he was at us and we let him go. He always loves to play against us and score to prove a point. Joe Lolly is quality as well. Adomah used to cause us a few problems when he was playing for our (then) bogie side Boro.

If you keep losing possession in midfield – which is one of your weak spots – hopefully that is where can benefit as we can be rapid on the break – very much like your team.

Who do you see as our main threat/best player?

Grabban always worries me. Just because he loves scoring against us.

What would you give the clubs rivalry with Forest out of 10? 1 – being your 2nd team 5 – being a mutual respect and 10 – your most hated team. 

Personally I love coming to Forest as do a lot of Bees fans. There are four or five ‘must do’ awaydays for us (all unglamorous) and Forest is one of them (alongside Preston and Boro). I would give Forest a 4.5. It’s the kind of place where you lose and still have a good drink with the fans after the match. And I know it’s the same with the Forest fans we know. They come to Grifin Park. They lose. And it’s no bother after the match. Each set of fans has a mutual respect for each other.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t participate in a bit of piss-taking. Being a fanzine we always will. But as people know, you have to take as good as you get. As long as it’s good humoured.

I mean. If a high profile player like Pontus Jansson had done what Richard Keogh had done, we as Brentford fans, should expect all the piss-taking under the sun. That’s just the way it rolls.

Your most memorable encounter with Forest and why?

I remember us playing Forest in the League Cup 4th round back in the 80s which was very exciting as it wasn’t long after you had won the European Cup. In fact our owner Matthew Benham bunked off school I believe to go to that match.

We got the football special from Ealing Broadway. We left before midday and it took about 9 hours to get there. We got to Nottingham just before half-time and were frog-marched to the ground by the police. I remember getting into the ground just in time to see (I believe it was) John Robertson score the second goal for Forest. I also remember the next time we played you – 23 years later at The City Ground. You had been relegated to Division 1. We beat you 2-1. And Bees fans were singing “From European Cup to the the LDV” – highlighting the difference in stature from the last time we had played you.

What’s your predictions for the game with scorers?

This is a toughie. There were positive signs against Barnsley for sure. But we need to keep level headed. You are a strong side. You don’t give much away (other than at Preston at the weekend). And you can score goals.

I’m going to remain positive and say we’re going to be on our B+ game and we’ll cause a few problems. You’ll cause us few problems but we’ll nick it 2-1. Watkins and Benrahma scoring for The Bees. Grabban scoring for Forest because it’s written in the stars.

Cheers to Billy for his thoughts, much appreciated! You can find more on Brentford right here –https://twitter.com/Beesotted