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Lee Carsley’s first test as Brentford boss is take on one of his former clubs in Birmingham City.

Carsley spent two seasons as a player at St Andrews – captaining them to promotion back to the Premier League in the first of them in 2009.

The Blues arrive at Griffin Park on Tuesday after suffering a little wobble in form with two defeats in their last three Championship games.

They have been in and around the play-off zone for most of the season but are still in the mix and will move into the top six with victory over the Bees.

They are unbeaten away from St Andrews with a 2-0 win at MK Dons and draws at Burnley (2-2) and Ipswich (1-1).

It is at home where they have slipped up recently – losing their last two matches to Nottingham Forest (1-0) two weeks ago tonight and then being beaten 2-0 by Rotherham on Saturday. That match proved to be Steve Evans’ last in charge of the Millers.

Last Tuesday they also bowed out of the Capital One Cup – losing 1-0 to local rivals Aston Villa after beating Bristol Rovers (2-1 away) and Gillingham (2-0 at home) in the first two rounds.

The Blues bring two very familiar faces with them in Clayton Donaldson and Jon Toral, who have been regulars in the side this season.

Clayton had a mini scoring drought of four Championship games from the start of the season but ended it in style with a hat-trick in the 4-2 defeat of Bristol City – his second in Birmingham colours following a treble against Wigan last season.

Those were three of 16 goals Clayton scored for the Blues in 2014/15 – 15 of them in the league – after leaving us last summer when his contract expired.

During three years in our colours, Clayton scored 53 goals in 155 appearances in all competitions while off the field he did a lot of work for the Brentford Community Sports Trust.

Jon made 37 appearances for us last season – mostly off the bench – on loan from Arsenal, who have allowed him to join City on a similar arrangement this term.

He found the net six times for us, with his most memorable scoring achievement being a hat-trick in the 4-0 defeat of Blackpool.

Birmingham are in their fifth successive season in the Championship following relegation from the Premier League in 2011.

They have had two mid-table finishes, one season where they reached the play-offs – losing to Blackpool in the semi-finals – and one where they avoided relegation in the final seconds of the campaign.

WE’VE MET BEFORE

Birmingham have become a bit of a bogey side for Brentford and we have not beaten them in any of the sides’ last six meetings.

We lost 1-0 at St Andrews in February – City’s first Championship win for nine games – following a 1-1 August draw at Griffin Park in which the Bees earned a point thanks to a late Moses Odubajo goal, despite playing most of the match with 10 men following the sending-off of Tony Craig.

The meeting before that, in October 2010, was our famous Carling Cup fourth round tie at St Andrews – only the second time we had reached that stage of the competition.

We stunned the then Premier League Blues when Sam Wood volleyed us into a 68th minute lead right in front of thousands of travelling Bees fans.

We were only seconds away from our first-ever place in the quarter-finals when we gave away possession and Kevin Phillips grabbed a late, late equaliser.

There were no goals in extra-time and the match went to penalties. Goalkeeper Richard Lee was unable to repeat his heroics from the victory over Everton in the previous round and we lost 4-3.

Birmingham did the double over us in 1994/95 in Division Two (now League One) and that was decisive in them pipping us to the one promotion place available.

They also won here in Division One (now the Championship) in March 1993 – leaving our last victory over them a 3-1 triumph in the Midlands in December 1992 thanks to goals from Gary Blissett, Simon Ratcliffe and Billy Manuel.

IN CHARGE

Gary Rowett has been in charge at Birmingham for a shade over 11 months after replacing Lee Clark.

The former Blues defender left Burton after two-and-a-half years in charge during which time he twice led them to the League Two play-offs. He was previously the Brewers’ assistant manager to Paul Peschisolido.

Gary finished his playing career as a defender, in which he made more than 400 appearances, at Burton and also played for Birmingham while his other clubs were Cambridge, Everton, Blackpool (loan), Derby, Leicester and Charlton.

OPPOSITION VIEW

Birmingham midfielder Stephen Gleeson wants to use Tuesday’s trip to Griffin Park to get over the disappointment of the defeat to Rotherham.

He told the Birmingham Mail: “I don’t know if it was the Villa game, maybe it was a bigger occasion than a lot of us thought. I can’t put my finger on it but it just wasn’t us on Saturday. I just can’t wait for the next game to try and put things right.

“On Tuesday we have to go again. We need to put in a performance like we did at Villa in the week. It’s good having another game so quickly, for me personally to put it right.

“I am sure we will look over the game but from the start it didn’t feel right and when we did get things going we just shot ourselves in the foot.

“We just need to get going again and hopefully on Monday we can come in and put this behind us. But there have not been many days like this so hopefully we can put it right because we usually do so.”

SQUAD NEWS

One piece of good news for Birmingham on Saturday was the return of Wales international winger David Cotterill to the side.

Cotterill missed the defeat at Aston Villa after suffering a heel injury in the previous weekend’s draw at Ipswich and had been expected to make his comeback at Brentford.

Former Oldham defender Neal Eardley is the only confirmed absentee after suffering a dislocated shoulder at Portman Road.

The Blues have had a settled side in the Championship with no fewer than eight ever-presents in their eight matches and three more men who have started seven games out of a total of 18 players who have seen any league action.

Apart from Donaldson, Toral, Cotterill and Gleeson, other players to look out for include former Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, signed in the summer from Wolves and highly-rated teenage winger Demarai Gray, who signed a new three-year contract in the summer.

IAN WESTBROOK

@ianwestbrook

 

 

Drinking in Brentford

For Birmingham fans coming down, you are probably aware there plenty of pub options pre-match and all are most welcoming. Colours are fine and there is no ‘bouncer culture’ on the doors of our boozers – not yet anyway. All fans are welcome and most fans usually cite Brentford as their favourite away-day which we’re quite proud of.

As is etched in common folklore , there were four pubs around the ground until a few weeks ago – unfortunately one closed down to leave only three now. The Griffin is closest to the away end (like 30 secs walk) and is very popular with away fans – but also very very busy. The New Inn is on the other side is also popular with away fans. The Princess Royal is the other option (The Royal Oak was the one that closed down).

Other pubs slightly further afield for the more creative amongst you include (and this is by no means a definitive list) the  … The Globe (Windmill Rd) is the Beesotted fanzine main pub – a very friendly pub indeed. The other boozer is The Lord Nelson (Enfield Rd)  – both incredibly friendly and cozy away-frienly pubs and 30 seconds walk from each other .. frequented by ‘away fans in the know’. Boro fans and Bees fans had one hell of a party before and after the match in both these boozers (despite us losing)- and The Plough (Northfields Ave – 1 minute walk from the tube) in Northfields is a decent stop-off if you are coming by tube to Northfields before making your way down to the ground (normally stopping off at The Globe and Lord Nelson en route on the Northfields pub crawl).

Easily the best way to Brentford is to get the Victoria line from Euston to Green Park and the Piccadilly line from Green Park to either Northfields or South Ealing (35 mins). Northfields is preferred by fans in the know as it has a decent pub crawl run on the way to the ground (Plough, Lord Nelson, Globe). South Ealing has one posh puben route that doesn’t really like football fans so we won’t even give it a mention here. It’s 20 mins walk from either South Ealing OR Northfields to the ground or you can get the E2 bus from Northfields or 65 bus from South Ealing for the short 5 minute journey.

Some fans prefer to take the tube to Vauxhall then get the overground to Brentford mainline station. Depending on your connection time, this could be a slightly longer route as you could be waiting for up to 15 mins for a train and the train takes 26 mins to Brentford.

If you do take this route, there is also a pub right by Brentford station always referred to as … er …  the Pub by Brentford station.

For ale head to the Magpie and Crown pub on Brentford High Street. The Royal Horseguardsman can probably hold 15 of you at a push. The Brewery Tap is a cosy boozer by the river. And if you are super adventurous, get off at Kew Bridge and visit the brand new boozer One Over the Ait right on the river – beside the bridge. Great views over The Thames. It’s around 15 mins walk to the ground from here.

There are loads more too. A quick Google search and you’ll find them all. There are many many more too if you have a look around.

Parking is pretty easy away from the ground going up towards and over the A4 Great West Rd (ie. North) via Ealing Rd or Windmill Rd.