Nottingham Forest will be hoping to shore up their defence when they visit Griffin Park tonight after conceding three goals in each of their first two league games of the season.
They opened the campaign with an entertaining 4-3 win over Championship new boys Burton, but that was followed by a televised 3-0 defeat at Brighton last Friday.
Possibly the highlight of their opening day victory was the return of prolific striker Britt Assombalonga, who scored the first and last goals on his first start for 18 months following a serious knee injury.
The former Southend striker did miss the Brighton game after feeling some pain during training but he is expected to return tonight.
Rather than returning to Nottingham after the match at the Amex, Forest have been staying in the London area and using Barnet’s training facilities thanks to the League Two club’s boss – former Brentford manager Martin Allen.
Last Tuesday, Forest avoided becoming one of the Championship’s first round casualties in the EFL Cup when they grabbed a last-gasp 2-1 victory at League Two Doncaster thanks to an injury-time goal from Jamie Ward. Their reward is a trip to Millwall in round two.
The club had a busy summer with the appointment of manager Philippe Montanier being followed by a flurry of transfers.
Coming in have been Greece international striker Apostolos Vellios, previously with Everton, from Iraklis, Finland international defender Thomas Lam from Dutch side PEC Zwolle, Benfica right-sided defender or midfielder Hildeberto Pereira on a season-long loan, Poland international defender Damien Perquis from Toronto, Charlton’s former Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper Stephen Henderson, ex-Senegal, Arsenal and QPR defender Armand Traore and Switzerland international and former Fulham midfielder Pajtim Kasami on a season-long loan from Olympiakos.
Among the departures have been goalkeeper Dorus De Vries, who was injured in the Burton game but who has now left the club to join Celtic, and defender Kelvin Wilson, who moved on to Rotherham, while midfielder Andy Reid has retired following a series of injury problems.
Forest are now in their ninth consecutive season in the Championship, after winning promotion from League One in 2008, and have not been in the Premier League since 1999, even though they were one of the competition’s founder members.
They made the play-offs in 2010 and 2011 but have rarely challenged for promotion otherwise.
Fanstand interview with Forest fan Adam from Forever Forest TV
I expect us to try and take it to Brentford and fight with fire.
WHO’S IN CHARGE
Philippe Montanier was appointed as Nottingham Forest manager on a two-year contract at the end of June to become the club’s first non-British boss.
He is the successor to Dougie Freedman, who was sacked in March and briefly replaced by former Bees coach Paul Williams.
The 51-year-old’s last job was with French side Rennes, who he guided to the 2014 French cup final, and he has also been in charge of Real Sociedad, who he led into the Champions League in 2013, Boulogne and Valenciennes.
As a player, Montanier was a goalkeeper with clubs including Toulouse, Nantes and St Etienne.
Looking at tonight’s match, Montanier told the Nottingham Post: “It will be another tough game and another good atmosphere. I saw their win over Ipswich and it will be a difficult game, but the most important thing is that we react positively following the defeat at Brighton.
LAST SEASON’S MEETINGS
Brentford earned our first home win over Forest for 66 years last November thanks to a dramatic late, late goal from Philip Hofmann, after fellow substitute Sergi Canos had put us ahead. Harlee Dean was sent off and Henri Lansbury equalised for Forest before Hofmann stole the headlines.
Brentford completed our first double over Forest since the 1948/49 season when we won 3-0 at the City Ground at the start of April. Inspired by another international break, second half goals from Lasse Vibe, Nico Yennaris and Canos again secured a victory which many fans said was one of their highlights of the season – simply because it seemed to banish any fears of relegation.
It sparked our move away from the lower reaches of the table and a run of six wins in eight games in the month.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US
In the second of a new feature in this season’s match previews, Robin Chipperfield, matchday presenter for BBC Radio Nottingham, looks at both teams – and reveals why he confuses the Bees’ goalkeeping coach with a Forest defender!
How do you see Forest doing this season?
It looks increasingly difficult to predict how Forest’s season will go. It’s probably ridiculous that we put too much store by one or two results, after three months without football, but there are reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic if you’re a Reds fan.
The biggest uncertainty is about the future ownership of the club, but – probably as at all clubs – there’s a nervousness about whether any of the bigger named players could leave before the end of the transfer window. Dorus De Vries (last season’s player of the year) has gone to Celtic, and there continues to be speculation about the future of striker Britt Assombalonga, though owner Fawaz Al Hasawi has said that he wouldn’t be sold.
What Forest fans would do for the date to be September 1st and for Assombalonga to still be at The City Ground. A thrilling, entertaining win over Burton on opening day was put into some perspective by the way they were swept aside in the second half at Brighton last Friday.
We may know a little more about the direction of the season after the game at Griffin Park.
What memories do you have – good or bad – of previous trips to Brentford to see Forest either for work or as a fan?
It’s not a ground I’ve been to a lot over the years. I seem to remember going to watch my team (Southend) years and years ago – don’t worry, I won’t mention David Webb!
Obviously I’ve been with Forest over the last couple of seasons – and remember the dramatic game last season when the Bees (leading 1-0) went down to ten men, conceded an equaliser and you thought there was only one team going to win it.
But Forest sat back and conceded a stoppage time goal to Philipp Hoffman. It had a profound effect on then manager Dougie Freedman, who made the Reds a much more compact unit from that point.
Forest went on the unbeaten (but not pretty) run that effectively kept them in the division last season.
Griffin Park is a ground I like – proper old style, a decent atmosphere and not a prawn sandwich in sight.
Have you had any amusing or unusual experiences at previous Bees-Forest games – and if so, what happened?
One thing I would keep an eye out for is the similarity between Brentford goalkeeping coach Simon Royce and Forest centre half Damian Perquis.
I concede that it would be a fairly niche lookalike competition, but I got to know Simon a bit at Southend and actually did commentary with him a few times on Southend games when he wasn’t in the side.
So when I bowled up at the Forest training ground to interview Perquis for the first time a few weeks ago, I thought the Reds had signed the Simon Royce of about ten years ago!
Who should Bees fans look out for on the Forest side – any of the new signings or people from last season’s team?
If I was a Brentford fan, I’d be most wary of Britt Assombalonga (assuming he plays, he didn’t at Brighton on Friday), but keep an eye out for the astonishing pace of winger Oliver Burke. If Brentford allow him to run at them, there’s trouble!
Matt Mills, Chris Cohen, and Assombalonga were not in the squad at the Amex – and Philippe Montanier played a very youthful side against Burton on opening day, so trying to second guess who will be in the team at the moment is a fool’s game!
Which Bees players will you be most wary of?
I mentioned I’m a Southend fan, so I’ll always have a soft spot for Alan McCormack for his role in our good days under Steve Tilson, and with Dan Bentley and John Egan also at Griffin Park, there are quite a few links.
I was always impressed with Egan whenever I saw him play for the Blues or Gillingham, so I’ll be intrigued to see if he can make a go of it at Championship level.
But the one player who always stood out to me when Brentford played sadly won’t be playing – and that’s obviously Alan Judge. He was an outstanding player for Notts County a few years ago, and has looked even more dominant in the middle of the park at Brentford.
When you see the likes of Ross McCormack moving for £12m this season, and the type of transfer fees that are being talked about between even Championship clubs, you wonder at the value of Judge.
One of the best players in the Championship, in my book.
For more Forest views, check out our pre-season blog by fan Danny Wetton
We have a new manager (the first foreign manager the club has ever had), new signings, potential new owners and a great new kit. We’re looking to be positive as always but I think round about 10th-8th will be where we finish.
FORM GUIDE
The Bees won three of our final four home games of last season while Forest earned wins in their final two away games at Fulham and MK Dons.
Both Brentford and Forest finished last season strongly with the Bees only losing one of our last nine matches and Forest unbeaten in their last five.
Infographics supplied by https://kickoff.co.uk
TEAM NEWS
Forest have made several changes to their team for every match so far, so their line-up is hard to predict.
We do know that Britt Assombalonga will return, as mentioned earlier, and defenders Matt Mills and Thomas Lam, who both missed the Brighton game through injury and illness, are also fit again.
Defender Danny Fox is available for the first time this season after serving a three-match suspension following his dismissal at MK Dons on the final day of last season, but Armand Traore is not yet fully match-fit.
Forest played a 4-5-1 formation against Burton but 5-3-2 at Brighton so Montanier is happy to change his system depending on the opposition.
Friday’s side, which is certain to change tonight, lined up:
PUBS IN BRENTFORD
For Forest fans coming down, you are probably aware there plenty of pub options pre-match and all are most welcoming.
There are now only three pubs around the ground, following the closure of the Royal Oak.
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 and is also popular with away fans. The Princess Royal is the other option.
Other pubs slightly further afield for the more creative amongst you include (and this is by no means a definitive list) …. The Globe (Windmill Rd) is the Beesotted pre-match pub. This boozer & The Lord Nelson (Enfield Rd) are both incredibly friendly and cosy away-friendly pubs and about 1 min walk from each other .. frequented by ‘away fans in the know’. The Plough (Northfields Ave) in Northfields is a decent stop-off if you are coming by tube to Northfields (it’s a much better pub crawl route getting off at Northfields than South Ealing) before making your way down to the ground (normally stopping off at The Globe and Lord Nelson en route).
There is also a pub right by Brentford station always referred to as … 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. 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 Road or Windmill Road.
