Manager Simon Grayson remembers all too well that his last visit to Griffin Park ended with Brentford gaining promotion to the Championship.
However, almost 18 months on, the Lilywhites head back to London for a Championship fixture with plenty of changes having taken place with the Bees.
“A lot of water has gone under the bridge since we last played at Brentford, when they got promoted,” said the gaffer. “We have also got promoted since then and they have had a bit of a turnaround.
“They had a fantastic season last year and got into the Play-Offs. They have changed their ideas around over the summer with a new coach and new players coming in, but you have to be very respectful of what teams have done and what players they have got.
“They spent quite a lot of money in the summer and they are going through a bit of a transition period at the moment with a new coach trying to implement his new ideas with new foreign players that they have brought in.
“They have recruited and spent heavily over the past 18 months. They have brought players in from foreign countries and it has probably gone under the radar just how much they have spent. They have had players gone out, but they were bringing in players for money before Andre Gray went out, so it is not as if they are doing ‘like for like’ with the money, they heavily invested before that.
“They have good qualities and whilst there aren’t too many players our supporters will have heard of. Of course they have Alan McCormack and Alan Judge, but they have players in from Austria and Sweden and other parts of Europe, who are all good players.
“We will go there and be positive, try and win the game, but understand what kind of qualities they can bring as well.
“They have a front four are very lively and busy and look to make things happen and then they have a couple of British players in the middle of the park who try and sort things out for them, but it is a team that on the day can be very good.
“We had them watched last week against Leeds and they played very well and we watched them again up at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night and they have some qualities all the way through the team.”
The Lilywhites have put in some positive performances this season without as much reward as their effort has deserved and the boss feels they just need to continue working hard on the basics.
“In the Championship, on any given day any team can hurt you with the personnel that they have got and we have to do the basics right; make sure we are hard to beat and make sure we keep the possession better than we did against Bristol City.
“We overturned the ball too much on Tuesday and gave it away too cheaply – and then when we get to the top end of the pitch we need to be ruthless, have more quality and if we can string all that together we hopefully have the recipe for three points,” he added.