BRISTOL CITY will be hoping to catch Brentford cold in Saturday’s league match at Griffin Park (3pm) and beat the west London club for the first time since March 2007, writes Will Collins.

The Bees lost their manager Dean Smith to Aston Villa last week and have just announced his replacement – Thomas Frank – who was previously an assistant head coach at the club working under Smith. That Frank already knows the club inside out should bring some stability to a situation that usually causes unrest at football clubs, as a new manager takes time to impose his new ideas and strategies.

City head coach Lee Johnson should know by now the way in which Brentford will approach this game. They play a high-tempo attacking game at home and are usually relentless in creating opportunities to score. Two seasons ago City were lucky to escape with a 2-0 defeat and last season even luckier to nick a 2-2 draw right at the death, when Brentford should have been out of sight. City will need to be at their best defensively whilst being clinical in attack in what is in my opinion one of our toughest fixtures this season.

Next Wednesday City will hope to get their home record back on track as Hull City are the visitors to Ashton Gate (7.45pm). We tasted defeat in our last outing at Ashton Gate against Sheffield Wednesday and if we’re going to retain a respectable league position this season then strugglers Hull are the type of side we need to ensure victory against. The Tigers are currently bottom of the Championship table having lost 8 of their opening 12 fixtures. A win would set us up nicely for the visit of Stoke City three days later, who themselves have been struggling to adapt to life in the Championship following relegation from the Premier League.