Thomas Frank remains confident Brentford can maintain their stunning home form this weekend despite facing the quickest turnaround in the Premier League.
The Bees host Nottingham Forest on Saturday at 3pm, having only arrived back in west London on Thursday afternoon following their Carabao Cup defeat at Newcastle.
That came on the back of a 7pm fixture on Sunday night in which Brentford were beaten 2-1 at Chelsea.
It will therefore be only five days and 20 hours between kick-off at Stamford Bridge and the start of Saturday’s meeting with Nottingham Forest.
So Frank faces a huge test of his resources – against a team with the third-best away record in the Premier League – to pick up an eighth home win from nine matches this season.
“First and foremost we are not the only team in the world that play Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday, and we did it many times before in the Championship,” said the Bees boss.
“I’m talking about the optimal preparation that gives you the best opportunities to compete in both competitions.
“We were the team with the least turnaround in hours, game-to-game; 140 hours. Newcastle is 168, Liverpool 193. That means something for recovery.
“No complaints, it is what it is. We wanted to do our best to compete. I got all the information from where I tried to pick a team where we could compete Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday.
“When we went into the Sunday game, we were still trying to best the team and three days later we lost three players. That is the balance I need to hit.
“We stayed up in Newcastle last night, had a good night’s sleep. There was treatment for some of the players until 1, 2am.
“We had breakfast and a meeting this morning at 8am and left at 10.30. Another meeting with the players and recovery in the afternoon, and another meeting tomorrow to try to nail the final plan.
“It’s much easier when you win! Then there would have been no problem. But I’m very confident we will go out and perform on Saturday.”
Frank will be without defenders Sepp van den Berg and Ethan Pinnock, who were both injured at St James’ Park, but captain Christian Norgaard is fit to start against Forest.
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