Town host Europe-chasing Brentford in this season’s penultimate home game looking for only their second Premier League win at Portman Road during 2024/25.
While the Blues, whose relegation back to the Championship was confirmed at Newcastle a fortnight ago, have won three times on their travels in the league, the 2-0 success against Chelsea remains their only victory on their own turf.
Manager Kieran McKenna was asked whether the final home games, against the Bees on Saturday and West Ham on the last day, are about soaking up the Premier League atmosphere for two final afternoons.
"I think for the fans in terms of enjoyment, you’d hope so, that they can [do that],” McKenna said.
"We’ve faced some great clubs this year and maybe Brentford are on a different journey in terms of them having climbed up, and they’ve done really well and now they’re competing for European football.
"I think you want the fans to enjoy the day and enjoy the Premier League for the few remaining games, but, to be honest, for us, as the professionals working in the building, we have to go about our business really well.
"We need to go and work really, really hard to compete and make the game competitive, make it difficult for Brentford.
"We know they’re coming into the game with big, big motivation to achieve something and our motivation needs to match or go above that.
"For us, it’s about finding that and, of course, one of those big motivations is for our supporters to try and give them a day to enjoy at Portman Road.
"We’ve got two opportunities to do it before the end of the season and we’re going to work really, really hard to do so.”
Brentford are currently ninth in the table and chasing their first ever place in European competition having won their last three matches.
Away from home, they have lost only one in their last nine - 2-1 at Newcastle a month ago - having won five in a row on their travels prior to that. Earlier this month in their most recent away game, they beat Champions League-chasing Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the City Ground.
The Bees have recorded comprehensive victories in their away games against the other relegated teams, 5-0 at Southampton in January and 4-0 at Leicester in February.
"They’re a really good side,” McKenna reflected. "They’ve done terrifically well, manager [Thomas Frank] and the club and players.
"They had a really good home record at the start of the season up until the halfway point and then the home record’s not been so good in the second half but their away record’s been really good.
"We’re in that position a little bit at the moment where the away record’s been better than the home record and, truthfully, sometimes football’s a random sport and we always want an explanation for every little thing, but it’s not always evident that it’s there.
"We know they’re a good side home and away and we’re going to have to be at our very best to compete.”
Asked how that can be done against the West Londoners, McKenna added: "Like always at this level especially, we have to account for the opposition’s threats. It’s clear to see what they’re very, very good at. They’ve got a front four that are in fantastic form and they serve them really quickly and really well and they like to attack the big spaces well.
"So we need to make sure that we manage those situations well and manage those individuals well. We know they’re very good at putting bodies into the box and when they’re attacking the third phase they commit a lot of bodies into the box and they cross it and they put pressure on your goal.
"And, of course, they’ve been for quite a few years now, one of the best set-piece teams in the league.
"They’ve got some really good strengths and principles as a team and individually have got players in really good form.
"So we need to account for all of that but at the same time then we need to go and impose ourselves and have belief in ourselves and show what we can do and what we’ve shown at different times this season.
"What we showed against them in the first game when, with a really, really depleted squad, we went away from home and scored three goals against them and without the red card [for Harry Clarke], I think we were in a great position to possibly get something from the game.
"We believe that we can compete against them on any given day but we know that to do that we’re going to have to perform really, really well.”
Bees boss Frank said at his press conference on Thursday that he believes the Town game is the toughest his side has left to play. McKenna was asked whether he sees the match similarly.
"Each of them is different and I think all of us managers, I’m sure, will be saying the same thing next week, it’s what we do,” he said.
"Our home record hasn't been as good as we want, but there are only a few games this year that have got away from us and that’s tended to be against the teams at the very top end of the division.
"I think most teams will have recognised our qualities and found us a difficult opponent, so that's what we plan to be tomorrow.
"We know we’re facing a really motivated side. We’ve had a little bit of that in the last few weeks with playing Everton with the situation they’re at with Goodison, playing Newcastle and them pushing for Champions League, Arsenal at that time still probably pushing forward to stay in the title race and Chelsea pushing for the Champions League.
"So, we’ve faced opponents over the last few weeks who have got a clearer team goal and our team goal isn't as big, but that’s why we need to really hone in on what our motivation is individually, what our motivation is as a group is, what it means to the club to compete at this level for the first time in so long and how we want to finish that off.
"That’s what we’re going to do going into the weekend and hopefully that’ll help us produce a good performance, and that’s what we’re doing in the last two games as well.”
McKenna believes the Bees are punching above their level: "From a base level, I think they’ve got one of the smaller budgets and they’re performing really well in the league, so from the financials of football you’d say that’s very good performance.
"I know some of the staff there and it seems from the outside a really good culture within the building, a good culture within the playing group. You can see on the pitch how they work for each other.
"They’ve found ways to be effective in each season and they’ve got a well-regarded data and recruitment model that served them really well in terms of their climb to the Premier League.
"Each club is to their own and I don’t know all the ins and outs of it there, but over the last decade, maybe a little bit more, they’ve made some really good decisions and built something pretty good there and they’re having a good season.
"It’s a good test for us to come up against them, a good chance for us to measure ourselves against them.
"We’re on our journey and it would be great if we could compete well and try and get a result against them tomorrow.”
McKenna said last week that he’d spoken to managers already in the Premier League following Town’s promotion last summer and Frank was one of them, while Brentford’s head of coaching Justin Cochrane is one of the Town boss’s closest friends, the two having worked together at Tottenham and Manchester United.
"I spoke to him in the off-season because I saw him at a function, so I spoke to him at that,” McKenna recalled regarding Frank.
"And, as I’ve said, Justin Cochrane’s a very good friend of mine who’s his assistant, so I’ve spoken to him quite extensively over the last few years already about how we’ve tackled the climb.
"They’ve got some good people there and they’ve been on their journey. It’s a different journey than ours, but there are some similarities there and we try to learn from everyone that they can.”
McKenna would be pleased to see Brentford qualify for Europe but as long as that wasn’t as a consequence of them winning tomorrow.
"Not if it means them getting a result tomorrow, that’s for sure,” he added. "If we could beat them tomorrow and they could end up in Europe, I think I’d be pretty happy for the people who I know well there.”
Last summer the Bees lost star striker Ivan Toney, who moved to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, and McKenna was asked how impressed he has been with the way other players have stepped into the breach following the England international’s exit.
"A big part of that for me, unless I'm wrong, is that it’s not necessarily the money they spent this summer. The replacement is probably, I'd imagine for them long-term as a club, maybe Igor Thiago.
"What I do think is that you can look at their squad and see the value of time and patience.
"If you go through from maybe [Kevin] Schade, [Mikkel] Damsgaard and [Bryan] Mbeumo, [Yoane] Wissa, they probably weren't doing in the Premier League in the first six months that they played Premier League football what they’re doing now.
"Boys in terms of maybe a Wissa or Mbeumo, players who have come up with them from the Championship, are now in their fourth or fifth season of Premier League football and are really, really excelling at the level.
"Schade and Damsgaard are players who came in, I think, maybe at the start of last season and didn’t play as much initially. There’s an adaptation period to the Premier League, but now they’re are really doing very very well for them.
"They bought Fábio Carvalho and [Sepp] van den Berg, probably their two more expensive signings this summer, and Carvalho is still finding his way into it and Van den Berg started off playing full-back for them and he’s only really now getting settled into playing as a centre-half for them.
"I think what they have done really well is built underneath it and they’ve had a consistency and they’ve developed players over a period of time and those players have had time to adapt to the Premier League and have adapted really well.
"I think for us, as I’ve said all along, when you’ve had to change a squad and develop a squad really, really quickly like we have over the course of the past couple of seasons, it’s important not to make judgments too quickly.
"Especially people stepping up to Premier League level because the jump is huge and we haven’t been in the position that we’ve been able to ease some of our summer signings in. They’ve had to be important players straight away and that’s almost exclusively players who haven’t played at the level before.
"That’s one of the reasons why I think we have to be patient and we have belief in the boys here and belief that a lot of the players here can keep developing over the next few years
"And Brentford have really done that well in terms of the time and patience those players have had and they’re reaping the rewards of it now.”
Regarding the 4-3 defeat at the Gtech Community Stadium in October, McKenna views that as an opportunity missed.
"I think it was definitely one of those games that might have been,” he said. "I think we’ve got ourselves in a great position in the game. They scored two really good goals just before half-time, which was a bad time for us to concede, but they were the type of goal they’ve scored a lot of this year.
"We know they can carve through the pitch really quickly and if you get something just wrong, they can punish you.
"Then, in the second half, as I say, I think the red card had a big part to play in it. There’s no point in going back over it now, but that certainly made the task even tougher.
"But we got ourselves to 3-3 and we’ve made a mistake in the 90-whatever minute that’s led to us losing the game, so it’s certainly stocked away in one of those cabinets with the games of tight margins this year that could have certainly gone another way. But it is what it is and we get another chance to face them tomorrow.”
McKenna’s options are again limited by the lack of availability due to injury and in Leif Davis’s case the final game of his three-match ban.
Alex Palmer will continue in goal with Axel Tuanzebe probably ready to return at right-back, which should see Dara O’Shea move back into the middle alongside Cameron Burgess with Luke Woolfenden dropping to the bench. Jacob Greaves will continue at left-back in the absence of Davis and the injured Conor Townsend.
In central midfield, Kalvin Phillips and Jens Cajuste were still struggling with their ongoing injuries despite having come off the bench at Everton a week ago and may again both be on the bench, which would see skipper Sam Morsy partnered by Jack Taylor for the third game running.
Ben Johnson is available again after his suspension and may return in the right-sided role ahead of the double pivot with Omari Hutchinson perhaps switching to the central role with Julio Enciso on the left and Conor Chaplin dropping back to sub. Liam Delap looks set to start what may be his penultimate home game for the club.
Historically, Town have won seven of the games between the teams (three in the league), the Bees six (six) with six (six) ending in draws.
The Blues have won only one of their last 10 games against the West Londoners, a 2-0 victory at Portman Road in August 2017, losing five and drawing four.
In the first ever Premier League fixture between the teams and Town’s inaugural trip to Brentford’s new home, the Gtech Community Stadium, in October, the Bees came from two goals down to beat 10-man Town 4-3 in a game which swung one way and then the other throughout.
Sammie Szmodics and George Hirst gave Town a two-goal lead before Wissa and a Harry Clarke own goal made it 2-2 at the break.
Mbeumo made it 3-2 from the spot on 51, before Clarke was dismissed for second bookable offence.
Delap looked to have claimed a point for the Blues four minutes from time but Mbeumo scored deep, deep into injury time to grab all three points for the home side.
In the most recent Portman Road fixture between the sides, in September 2018, Kayden Jackson nodded his first Championship goal as Paul Hurst’s Blues held then-second-placed Brentford to a 1-1 draw.
Maupay gave the Bees a deserved 31st minute lead in a first half the visitors dominated but Town were much better after the break as they came back to claim their fourth home draw of a campaign which would eventually end in relegation with Jackson heading the equaliser on 73.
Blues winger Chieo Ogbene joined Brentford in January 2018 following a trial, having also spent time on trial at Town earlier the same month along with Limerick teammate Barry Cotter, who did win a deal at Portman Road.
Irish international Ogbene went on to make nine sub appearances for the Bees before departing for Rotherham in the summer of 2019 having spent the previous campaign on loan at Exeter.
Saturday’s referee is Sam Barrott, his assistants Wade Smith and Mark Scholes, and the fourth official Dean Whitestone. The VAR official is Jarred Gillett with his assistant Darren Cann.
West Riding-based Barrott, who began taking charge of Premier League fixtures last season, has shown 114 yellow cards and one red in 25 games so far this term.
His most recent Town match was the 6-0 home loss to Manchester City in which he booked only one of the visitors.
Prior to that he was in charge of the 0-0 draw at Brighton in September in which he cautioned Morsy, Phillips, Hutchinson and four home players.
Barrott refereed Town on five occasions in 2023/24, the last the 0-0 draw with Watford at Portman Road in April in which he cautioned Harry Clarke, Kieffer Moore and one Hornet.
He was also the man in the middle for the 4-0 win at Millwall on St Valentine’s Day when he awarded the Blues a late penalty, after Ali Al-Hamadi was felled by Murray Wallace, that the Iraqi international converted, his first goal for the Blues. Barrott also also yellow-carded Davis and three Lions.
Before that, Barrott took control of the 1-1 Boxing Day 2023 draw at home to Leicester in which he booked Marcus Harness and two Foxes.
He also officiated in the 3-2 Carabao Cup victory at home to Wolves in the preceding September in which he yellow-carded Elkan Baggott, Lee Evans, Sone Aluko and three of the Premier League side.
Barrott also took charge of the opening Championship fixture at Sunderland, which they won 2-1, in which he dismissed Black Cats right-back Trai Hume for two bookable offences and yellow-carded Morsy, Hladky, Burns and one Wearsider.
In 2022/23, Barrott was a late replacement official for April’s 6-0 thrashing of Charlton after it had emerged that the official originally slated for the game, James Bell, was a fan of Sheffield Wednesday, who at the time were vying with the Blues for League One promotion.
He showed yellow cards to Davis and four to Addicks, two to Ryan Inness, who was then issued with a red with two minutes left on the clock, his fourth dismissal of the season and fifth in just over a year.
Barrott had taken control of the 1-1 draw at Cambridge two months earlier in which he awarded the U’s a penalty after Edmundson had clumsily felled Conor McGrandles, which Walton saved. Barrott also booked Edmundson, Morsy and two home players.
He was also the man in the middle for the opening game of that season, the home game with Bolton Wanderers, which also ended 1-1, and in which he gave the Trotters a penalty, which was converted by Aaron Morley, after debutant Davis had tripped Conor Bradley. Evans, Woolfenden and two visitors were booked.
Prior to that, Barrott was in charge of McKenna’s first match as Town boss, the 1-0 home victory over Wycombe Wanderers at Portman Road in December 2021 in which he booked Morsy, Joe Pigott, Matt Penney and one Chairboy.
Palmer, Walton, Slicker, Tuanzebe, Boniface, Godfrey, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Burgess, Greaves, Morsy, Cajuste, Phillips, Luongo, J Taylor, Johnson, Clarke, Hutchinson, Enciso, Chaplin, Delap, Hirst.