Bees boss targeting play-off place
Dean Smith believes a play-off place is a realistic target for Brentford after the Boxing Day win against Aston Villa.
Goals from Romaine Sawyers and Lasse Vibe made it a perfect follow-up to Friday night’s win at Norwich and leaves Smith’s men seven points off the top six, in 12th spot.
“Our expectations are to finish in the top six,” said the Bees boss.
“We know that it’s tough, given the scale of the budgets in the league, but we feel that we’ve got a really good squad of footballers, and on our day, we can turn it on against anybody.
“That’s only two defeats in the last 17 league games, and that’s some performance in this league. We are getting close to our potential.
“They’re a quality bunch of players and they’re here to prove people wrong. It works in our favour when opposition supporters see us as ‘little Brentford’ and some get shocked when they see the standard of our football.”
Smith was full of praise for the resilience of his squad in the face of injury concerns.
Ollie Watkins hurt his foot at Norwich and failed a fitness test ahead of the Boxing Day clash – though he should be back for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend.
John Egan, meanwhile, has been struggling with illness.
“I think it showed that we’ve got a really good squad of players, because we were down to bare bones,” Smith said.
“We had Ollie Watkins out and John Egan out. Henrik Dalsgaard and Josh Clarke are a little too early for a game and we’ve got young lads on the bench, while it’s probably a little too early for Alan Judge to be on the bench.
“I’m really pleased with the character shown because in the last five or six minutes there was a lot of claret coming out of heads, noses, legs and the lads put their bodies on the line. Chris Mepham is doing really well, but it’s only what we expect from the lad and John Egan knows he’s got competition.
“Lasse Vibe – I’m really happy for him too. He worked tirelessly up front. It’s tough being up there on your own in these wet conditions but he did what he does best, which is to put the ball in the back of the net.
“Certainly I’d like it if he made Denmark’s World Cup squad. Hopefully he’s got that target on his mind and he can go and do that.”
