| Wrexham look to build on seven points from our
last four games with a trip to West London to face an out of form
Brentford side. The results last weekend
narrowed the gap at the foot of the table to four points and two matches
over the Easter weekend will give a clearer picture at the bottom of
League Two.
After having an encouraging start under manager Andy
Scott, Brentford have hit a bad patch of form with six defeats in their
last seven games.
The only three points in this sequence was from a 1-0 home win over
Macclesfield but recent form has resulted in Brentford dropping out of
play off contention and the Bees now find themselves in twelfth position
with a return of forty-nine points from their thirty-eight games.
The original game at the Racecourse, which Brentford
won 3-1, was Andy Scott's first game in charge of Brentford after
previous manager Terry Butcher was dismissed following five straight
defeats.
Brentford's form initially picked up following Scott's
arrival with the Bees only loosing one of Scott's first twelve games in
charge but since then Brentford have tasted heavy defeats against
Darlington, Bury and Morecambe.
Brentford's form at Griffin Park has not been the best
with only six home wins compared to eight on their travels
this season.
Keeping goals out has been the other problem for the
Bees with fifty-seven conceded so far this season and this leaves them
nineteenth overall in the defensive league table with nine more conceded
than us.
Our return of form has coincided with Michael Proctor
scoring four goals in his last four games but Brentford's top scorer,
Glenn Poole, has found the back of the net thirteen times this season from
midfield.
Poole joined the Bees from Grays on a free transfer
for the start of the new season and has scored five times in his last
nine games.
Brentford have had a busy season in the loan market
with a total of thirteen players on loan this season and
there has also been a recent change in the backroom staff with Terry Bullivant rejoining Brentford as Scott's assistant.
Recent Encounters:
Wrexham made a positive start in the first game at the
Racecourse before Christmas with Chris Llewellyn heading us into a
first half lead.
Brentford even had the luxury to miss an earlier
penalty before an Alan Connell brace after the break and a Steve Evans
own goal resulted in a 3-1 defeat.
This was the first meeting between the two sides in
over two years and you have to go back to January 2004 for our last
victory over Brentford with Chris Armstrong scoring the only goal of
the game in the second half at Griffin Park.
The overall head-to-head sees Brentford ahead with
twenty wins to our ten and there have been nine draws in the thirty-nine
leagues games between the two teams.
Team News:
Wrexham have named midfielders Danny Sonner, Neil
Roberts and Jeff Whitley in the squad that travels down to London on
Friday afternoon.
All three are a welcome boost to a department where we
have been light on numbers in recent weeks but Carl Tremarco and Neil
Taylor have failed to recover from their injuries they picked up last
weekend.
Defender Steve Evans and striker Rob Duffy are also
unavailable, and striker Stuart Nicholson has also joined them on the
sidelines.
Brentford have been boosted with the return of
midfielder Kevin O'Connor to full fitness but Matthew Heywood and Ross
Montague have been ruled out.
Chris Peat is still struggling after missing the
defeat to Morecambe last week and Osei Rankofa is expected to deputise
in Pead's absence at right back after only recently returning from
injury himself.
Elsewhere in League Two:
Macclesfield get a head start on all the teams at the
bottom when they face local rivals Stockport on Good Friday.
If the Silkmen fail to pick up any points then
Mansfield will be looking to close to within one point of Macclesfield
when they entertain Grimsby.
Notts County are the team out of form at the moment with only
three wins in their last twenty-three league games and the Magpies face a
difficult task to end this sequence when they play a Rochdale side that
are on the verge of the play offs at Meadow Lane. |
