Saturday’s hosts, Brentford, were handed a third defeat in four matches in the Championship last Saturday when they suffered a 2-0 defeat away at 5th placed Preston North End, but The Bees will be confident that they can bounce back against a beleaguered Stoke City outfit at Griffin Park.
Brentford’s earlier defeats were also inflicted upon them away from home with losses incurred at Leeds United and Charlton Athletic as the London club seem unable to get results on their travels, but at Griffin Park it’s quite a different story.
The Bees have lost just 2 out of their last 15 matches on home turf with the most recent loss being a narrow 1-0 defeat to Birmingham City who were a little fortunate to walk away from the nation’s capital with all 3 points, having managed just 1 effort on goal.
Brentford are a tough nut to crack on home soil though and their recent wins include victories against Leeds United, Preston North End and Derby County, the latter resulting in a 3-0 loss upon The Rams.
Striker Ollie Watkins (4 goals) looks the most likely for the hosts.
Onto Stoke City and their situation went from bad to worse following last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at home to Bristol City which became The Potters’ fourth league defeat on the trot in this season’s Championship, and having earned just 1 point from their opening 7 matches of the new season, the visitors sit bottom of the table.
Time must surely be running out for manager, Nathan Jones, who replaced the former Stoke City boss, Gary Rowett, in early January which seemed a very strange decision indeed; not least because Stoke City were sitting in the play-offs in 6th place!
Stoke fans - be careful what you wish for as The Potters have since sunk without a trace under Jones and the Welshman must now be just one defeat away from facing the axe.
Recent defeats to Preston North End, Leeds United, Birmingham City and Bristol City doesn’t bode well for Stoke as they make their way down to London to face one of the toughest teams in the Championship to play against in their own backyard.
In addition, Brentford have won the last 4 meetings against Stoke City on the trot at Griffin Park and look to be set to make it five wins in a row on Saturday.