Brentford set their eyes on the automatic promotion places ahead of their heavyweight clash with Bournemouth

The 2020/21 Championship season may still be less than half completed, but Brentford’s home game against Bournemouth on Wednesday certainly looks to be a clash of significant importance in the quest for promotion.

The Bees have been excellent since early October after a shaky start in which they lost two of their opening four league games. However, Thomas Frank’s side has tasted defeat just once in their last 15 Championship outings, and are unbeaten in their last 14 games.

Furthermore, the West London club are League Cup semi-finalists, overcoming Premier League outfit Newcastle United last Tuesday 1-0 in the quarter-finals of the competition, which was a fantastic early Christmas present for the Brentford faithful.

Of course, it was a shame that fans were unable to be present as Brentford reached their first major semi-final for the first time in their 131-year history, particularly after having opened the doors of their brand new stadium to fans before reclosing them abruptly with the capital put into tier four restrictions.

Fans once again won’t be present on Wednesday night for what is arguably the Bees’ biggest game of the season so far. They welcome a Bournemouth outfit to the Brentford Community Stadium who are one place above them and level on points (albeit with a game in hand). The game is of significant magnitude for their promotion hopes.

As for the Cherries, they too have enjoyed a stellar campaign thus far back in the second tier. 

Jason Tindall took the reigns on the south-coast after Eddie Howe resigned following the club’s five-year fairytale in the Premier League coming to an end in the summer and the 43-year-old is succeeding thus far.

Third in the Championship with a game in hand on Swansea and Norwich, the Cherries are certainly staking a strong claim for an instant return to the top-flight, however, draws need to be turned into wins on a more regular basis if they are to avoid the agony of the Play-Offs and finish in the top two.

The Dorset club have drawn eight times in the league this season, only 16th-place Millwall (10) have been involved in more stalemates this season. Granted, losing just two of their 20 league games so far is a solid foundation to build from, however, there have been occasions where the extra two points slipped away from Tindall’s side, who could be in Norwich’s position four points clear at the top of the table.

With the contest the final game of 2020 for both clubs, they will both be looking to end a calendar year that has seen significant blows respectively. 

Brentford missed their chance to get automatic promotion and had to settle for the Play-Offs, cruelly losing the Final to their West-London rivals Fulham. Bournemouth on the other hand had almost the opposite situation, dropping down from the top-flight after five years in English football’s elite competition.

Regardless of there still being 25 games for most Championship sides left to play (26 for Bournemouth), you can’t help but feel like this game could have a say in who eventually finishes in the top six and find themselves a Premier League outfit come the summer.

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