View From The Town End: Brentford

Billy Grant who writes for Beesotted has given us his views on Brentford ahead of their trip to the Madejski.

How would you sum up the season so far?

To most Bees fans August & September didn't happen. To say we had a false start to the season is an understatement. First we hired a manager and his coaching partner - Marinus Djukhuizen and Roy Hendriksen - that were completely wrong for the club. To be fair the club soon admitted "We made a mistake".

Then we failed to get our pitch in order which resulted in our record signing Andreas Bjelland getting injured on it during his first game and was ruled out for the season. We realised the pitch was a joke and we called our next game with Birmingham off but not before being humiliated by Oxford and knocked out of the league cup.

We also had about another 15 players injured, most of them first teamers and many of them long-term including Jota, Josh McEachran, Marco Djuricin and Maxime Colin.

So in a strange way we've been playing a sort of B+ side with many players in the team over the past few months getting game time (and great experience) who, if we had zero injuries like last season, would be on the bench at best for the Bees including Nico Yennaris, Konstantin Kerchbaumer, Jack O'Connell, Andy Gogia and Josh Clarke.

The other plus side is when we get our full squad back by Feb/March we'll have one of the strongest benches in the league.

So to sum up our season I would say ... it started on October 17th when we beat Rotherham and won four in a row.

Reading won fairly comfortably at Griffin Park earlier this year but the form of both teams seems to have flipped around since then. What did you make of Reading that day?

We thought Reading were a different class that day but to be honest I can't tell if that was just because we were sooooo bad; not taking anything away from Reading.

Our problem was that we really lacked proper organisation under previous manager Djukhuizen.  We did play good football in patches but that was normally when we had our backs up against the wall. He was trying to get us to play a particular style of Dutch tactical football that just didn't work and our pre-season training regime was so poor we just weren't fit. That coupled with the lack of organisation meant we had no chance.

In saying that, Reading looked like world beaters that day. You were hitting us fast on the break with Nick Blackman on fire.  As mentioned, we looked down and out that day and lacking in passion and unity.

We've lost 2 of the last 12 matches so yes our form has certainly flipped. That was down to Lee Carsley coming in an injecting passion and team spirit back into the side. As well as getting them to play more like we did last season he turned things around and we haven't looked back since.

If we had started the season like we are going now, we would be well within that top five break-away pack.

But hey ho that's football for you and maybe it's going to be another exciting end to the season.

Lasse Vibe was heavily linked with a move here last January, how's he done for Brentford since joining this summer?

Lasse Vibe, one of the players identified by the owners little stats box.

He's a very good player but like many players who come from abroad, he's has to acclimatise. They tried starting with him in the team playing out wide before switching to just behind the striker while more recently he's been playing up front on his own since Djuricin's injury.

He's really learning fast, he's quick, he works tirelessly and he's scored a fair few goals. Needless to say he's turning into a bit of a terrace hero.

Who should Reading fans be wary of?

Depends.

Lee Carsley has made Brentford a team again so it's hard to pinpoint any player as such. Button is a great keeper, Bidwell a great left back while Colin is back on form at right-back and a Quality player. Jota is back on the bench, Diagouraga runs the centre of midfield, Ryan Woods is everywhere, Judge is unplayable and Vibe is getting more and more dangerous each game.

So it's really hard to choose.

Who are Bees fans not looking forward to facing?

Orlando Sa. He's ex Fulham so can't have him score against us again. Let's hope we can contain Blackman this time

Score prediction?

We seem to struggle with clean sheets so I'm going 1-1

Finally, where do you think you'll end up come the end of the season

If we carry on the way we've been going we'll sneak into the playoffs again. This game will play a big part in how we approach the new year,  will we stick or twist?

Personally I reckon we'll finish 6th.

Billy theBee Grant (@billythebee99) writes and videoblogs for Beesotted fanzine. You can follow them on twitter (@beesotted) and watch their match day fan videos on the Beesotted Youtube Channel