[Marco4]

With the proposed site at Lionel Road very much in the pipeline, Tuesday March 3rd may represent Huddersfield Town's last ever visit to Griffin Park. It will be a shame to say goodbye to it, and I recommend that anyone who has yet to visit take the opportunity - if not this season, then should the Bees fail to make the Premier League, then next. It will be my sixth visit to Griffin Park on Tuesday and fourth with Town - though I failed to attend the most memorable of recent meetings, the play-off semi final of 1995. Although perhaps famed for its pubs on each of the four corners of the ground, there's a definite olde-worlde charm to Griffin Park, resolutely standing against the ravages of time and progress. Those twin forces will win out soon... the night will always win... but for now, we can enjoy the dusk, happy in the knowledge that we have seen one day, and waiting to rise, blinking, into the next.

Griffin Park, way back in 1939 - its barely changed.

Brentford v. Huddersfield Town

Chris Powell takes his Terriers to Brentford on Tuesday night for what is not only a second game in the capital in quick succession, but is also a clash that has often meant a lot more than it will this time around. Fighting for three points that might well take the Bees back into the top six, Huddersfield Town's season has been good enough that they are swimming in the mild waters of mid-table. As such, the home side start as favourites not just as a result of league position, but for reasons of desire, too.

It will be the 61st meeting of the two sides, but only the fourth at second tier level; Huddersfield are yet to lose to their buzzing rivals in the Championship, beating them 2-1 earlier this season, and winning 1-3 and enduring a goalless draw at Leeds Road way back in 1952. Such fixtures are a rarity, then.

Both sides have been, recently, patchy - over their last six games, Brentford have won three and lost three, while Huddersfield have won two, drawn two and lost two, though their heavy defeat at the Valley on Saturday won't fill anyone with optimism before they make this particular trip.

Andre Gray is Brentford's leading scorer with 13 goals, though he does seem to celebrate goal kicks, too.

Brentford are a team of fine footballers cobbled together, as so often they have been, by a collection of shrewd signings from around London and the appeal of gathering loans from other clubs not-so-very far away. The likes of Alex Pritchard - from Spurs - and Jon Toral - from Arsenal - illustrate the latter of those methods, while David Button had a million and one loans from Spurs, before moving to Charlton and eventually finding his home in West London. I'm a big fan of Richard Lee, personally, but I've been told his form had dropped off, so Button got his spot. Needless to say, I'll be keeping my eye on him.

If you want to look elsewhere during the game, you could do worse than direct your attention to the two benches. Not to the Battle of Bread between Mark Warburton and Lloyd Allinson but to the Bees' dugout which contains, for your wonderment and 'Man, he's changed' element the following ex-pros.

David Weir - venerable ex-centre-back of Everton, Rangers and Scotland.
Simon Royce - steady pair of gloves, ex of Gillingham and Southend Utd.
Lee Carsley - bald-headed midfielder who nearly got a big move once but didn't.

Unlike his current employers, Simon Royce had enjoyed playoff success in the past.

Of course, there's some very famous history between the two sides - notably, those two playoff meetings, both in semi-finals. In the one, Huddersfield were successful while in the other, Brentford were. There's not a lot more to add to that, really. You'll all remember the Alan Lee game that featured in the previous Brentford preview I wrote for the site and its true that over my lifetime watching Town, there are few teams who have offered positional rivalry as often as the Bees have. When Town have been going for something, Brentford have tended to be one of the teams in their way; I suspect the same is less true the other way around, as there was some big seasons with the Doncaster shenanigans and suchwhat down at Griffin Park.

Scoring against Wycombe? Rinse and repeat.

Jordan Rhodes is the go-to name of players who featured for both, but it is almost inconceivable that the Scot would have joined Town without his cameo loan spell with the Bees the season before. Getting his name out there, as a goal-scorer, away from Ipswich, would have alerted Town to his presence and the fact that he was available for transfer is one of the better moves of recent seasons. I remember him fondly in blue and white stripes - indeed, I remember him scoring once at Brentford for Town in a 0-4 victory that featured a Lee Novak lob of such beauty that it could appear on the ceiling of a church in Bologna.

I'll come back to this thread a little later on to update a bit more of managers and players - when the dust has settled from Saturday, so perhaps Sunday evening or Monday morning. For now, though...