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At the moment Brentford are in the middle of their first sticky patch of the season. Defeats to Ipswich, Wolves and Brighton in succession taste slightly sourer given Albion’s home FA cup draw against Arsenal.

Brentford currently sit sixth in the table. I don’t know a single Bees supporter who would have been unhappy with that position at the start of the season. I think a number would take it at the end of the season too, giving us a roll of the dice in those play-offs that we are so successful in….

Ispwich’s first half demolition of The Bees on boxing day might, in hindsight, have been a useful wake up call. They were a well drilled and intelligent footballing outfit and we were largely outfought and out-thought. We’ve been a surprise package so far but our performances have dictated that opposition managers now need to interrupt our pass and move free flowing gameplan or they will very possibly be beaten.

The losses against Wolves and Brighton were less of a worry. A linesman’s flag at Molineux and one bad day at the office for Andre Gray sealed our fate in those games. We’ve still created chances and caused problems, although individual errors at the back have been growing in number.  These results, however, look more like a blip than a trend.

Next up at Griffin Park are Rotherham United – themselves licking wounds from a 5-1 home mauling from an under strength Bournemouth side last weekend. Steve Evans will no doubt set out to park the bus and ruffle our feathers, but we have to stick to the game plan. Our chances will come and I’m certain we will stick some away this time around.

But our players need to keep believing and we, the supporters, need to keep believing too.

The footballing future at Griffin park remains incredibly bright. A number of our young players are improving each week and we’ve recently captured the highly talent Lewis Macleod from Rangers to bolster a squad which has already looked capable of pushing for promotion.

I’m sure that the management team and Mr Benham are aware of our weaker areas and will seek to fill those holes – we all know that we are lacking a proven goalscorer to take the pressure off Andre Gray in the rare games when the raw but influential striker misfires. We definitely miss Dougie when he is absent too, although injuries to Alan McCormack and Marcos Tebar will not have helped here.

A look at our bench most week shows a number of player who in another era would probably have been the idols of Griffin Park – regular starters rather than members of a talented squad. The likes of Sam Saunders and Stuart Dallas are proven matchwinners and give tiring opponents even more to think about.  I personally cannot remember a better time to be a Brentford fan.

We will have a bumper “pay what you can” crowd at Griffin Park this Saturday – a game which is already sold out – so we’ve got a great chance to crank up the noise and celebrate the fantastic football we’ve been served by Mark Warburton’s team.  Let’s enjoy each and every moment.

Keep the faith

Condorman