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Brentford boss Mark Warburton has already spoken of the opportunity to rotate his squad ahead of tonight’s Capital One cup clash at Dagenham, but will no doubt be bearing in mind some harsh lessons learnt in our recent history.

Uwe Rosler took a second round away cup fixture at Derby County as the chance to give his second string an outing last season, but a 5-0 mauling – whilst not ultimately disastrous – certainly popped our early season mojo.

The Bees had, ironically,  knocked out Dagenham in the round one, but only after a very late winner from Farid El Alagui as the Daggers pushed hard for a cup upset – and the East Londoners may well fancy their chances on home turf this time around.

Victoria Road has not been a particularly happy hunting ground for Brentford over recent times with consecutive defeats (including the 4-1 demise of Andy Scott) and a floodlight failure my main memories from the long and winding journey up the district line. I certainly don’t fancy more of the same tonight.

Obviously our squad is stronger these days. The likes of Harlee Dean, Richard Lee and Tommy Smith will no doubt lap up the chance to prove their first team credentials against a side who lost 3-0 at home to Morecambe at the weekend and are without the injured former Bees loanee Rhys Murphy.

I’d hope also that the game might provide the chance for some of our younger players to impress – Montell Moore stood out for me pre-season, and there is probably a reason that he is in our first team squad and hasn’t been loaned out to a lower division. Josh Clarke was a solitary highlight from the Derby debacle.

But I’m hoping for just a few changes from Saturday rather than a completely different XI. Retaining 4/5 starters from our draw with Charlton should give us a decent foundation to the team, and improve the chances of the other players sparking into life. It will also give the established players a further chance to sharpen their match fitness ahead of the trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.

It might also be worth us all taking along some 50 pences just in case there are problems with the lights again.

Condorman