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After picking up his 9th booking of the season, Brentford Captain, Jonathan Douglas, is on the verge of a two-match suspension. The rules state if any player picks up ten yellow cards before the 2nd Sunday in April (April 14th), that player receives a two match suspension. Which leaves Uwe with a dilemma.

The Bees’ skipper is so influential – so, does he leave Douglas out against Coventry? Pointless dropping him for Franchise FC, but after that, it could get tricky. If so, he may still runs the risk of picking up a yellow against Crewe and be banned for Pompey and Sheffield United. Or does he risk playing Douglas for Coventry, then rest him for Crewe? Or does he rest him for both games (which would be the same as a two game suspension anyway – albeit different matches)? Or does he just play him and, if he gets booked, risk getting suspended for Portsmouth and either Crewe or Sheffield (depending on which game he gets booked in). Maybe he’ll take the risk .. Play him for Franchise, Coventry and Crewe and if he gets through all those keep him out for Pompey.

Douglas was banned for the Sheffield United home game earlier in the season after picking up five bookings, and although the team coped admirably in his absence, with Kiernan slotting into the midfield alongside Diagouraga, Forshaw and Forrester, we are sure Uwe has food for thought ahead of a busy run-in. We certainly have the strength in depth to deal with players going missing – particularly in midfield. We can’t second guess Uwe, but with the manager liking to play safe, he will have no doubt have already calculated this into his end of season run-in.

He won’t like the idea of his captain playing with a niggling feeling in the back of his head that he cant afford to get another booking. But then again, maybe he’ll throw caution to the wind, and if Dougie goes down, the rest of the team will have to muck in and fill in accordingly. Whatever the decision, Brentford undoubtedly have enough quality to cope with this scenario.

BillytheBee
@billythebee99