Burnley v Brentford - Pete Oliver's big match preview

IN THEIR bid to escape relegation, football managers never tend to give up hope "while our destiny is in our own hands."

At this stage of the season the mathematics don't come into play with more than enough points available for everyone to turn things round.

But if ever Burnley had a chance to shape their immediate destiny and head for the sanctuary of mid-table rather than a nervy end-of-season run-in then this current spell of games provides it.

Between January 24 - when Burnley were a point adrift at the bottom of the Second Division - and the end of this month, the Clarets will have played four struggling sides in Southend, Preston, Brentford and Carlisle in proverbial six-pointers.

Wins over the first two, allied to a 7-2 thumping of York City, have produced a much rosier picture at Turf Moor, where Chris Waddle's men will be looking to accelerate their climb away from trouble against Brentford tomorrow.

The critical nature of the run has not been lost on wing-back Chris Brass.

"I said about six weeks ago that this was a very important time," he said.

"You like to take each game one at a time but if you looked at the fixtures it was a very important spell for us to hopefully get away from the relegation places.

"We are half way to maintaining that. These few games are very crucial to us because we are playing teams who are down there. If you do win you can kick on a number of places.

"Hopefully if we do win tomorrow we will open up a little comfort zone and pull away."

And Brass sees no reason why the Clarets shouldn't record a seventh successive home win against a Brentford side with abysmal away form. "We are confident and are going into the game expecting to get three points. They are a very hard-working team but if we match them our quality should show through.

"That's been the difference in the last few weeks. We have worked harder and once we have won the battle we have shown what we are capable of."

Brass himself has emerged as a key figure in the 5-3-2 formation Waddle has been employing on a regular basis since Christmas.

Playing on the right-hand side of the defence with a brief to push forward, Brass has struck up an excellent understanding with Glen Little and it was Brass's overlapping run and cross which set up Andy Payton's midweek Auto Windscreens Shield win over Preston.

Explaining his evolvement in the position, he added: "I was playing as a centre-half in the back five last year for Adrian Heath and I enjoyed playing there.

"When Chris Waddle asked me to play there it was a different role and I found it quite hard to adapt. But since I moved across I have got stronger every game and I am enjoying it. "Since the Watford game I have had that freedom to get forward and be more attack minded which has benefited the forwards."

It also enabled Brass to score his first League goal in the win over York and he then proved his versatility again against Preston on Tuesday night when he was pushed into midfield to nullify the threat of Lee Ashcroft.

That was accomplished as Burnley booked a place in the northern final of the Shield and put themselves one two-legged tie from Wembley.

Brass was pleased to progress from a "high pressure" game against Preston but stressed that thoughts of the twin towers will be now put to the back of the mind.

"It would be nice to get there but our main priority is to keep our status in the second division." The next phase in that mission should be accomplished tomorrow.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.