Life in the Championship has started fairly well for Brentford, and they will be confident of picking up another three points when they host Birmingham City at Griffin Park on Saturday.

The Bees began with a late equaliser to rescue a point at home to Charlton Athletic, while a narrow defeat away to Bournemouth was certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

However, it would have still come as a major relief to Mark Warburton's side when they picked up their first victory of the season on Tuesday night, coming from behind to beat beleaguered Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.

After three consecutive away games, including an incredible 6-6 draw against Dagenham & Redbridge in the League Cup, Brentford will be pleased to get back to Griffin Park, where they lost just three times on their way to automatic promotion from League One last season.

Home form is again likely to be crucial this time around, and a match against a Birmingham side also expected to be battling against relegation provides a good chance for their first Griffin Park win of the campaign.

New signing Andre Gray started the first two league games of the season but was left out of the squad entirely on Tuesday having picked up a knock against Bournemouth, and he is expected to be fit to start again this weekend.

Whether he will be able to push fellow new boy Nick Proschwitz out of the side remains to be seen, however, as Warburton could be tempted to stick with his winning formula from midweek.

Birmingham, meanwhile, must pick themselves up from their midweek encounter against Ipswich Town as the Tractor Boys scored a 94th-minute equaliser to steal a point from St Andrew's.

That result leaves the Blues on four points from their first three games - the same total as this weekend's opponents - and manager Lee Clark will be fairly happy with how his side have started the campaign.

He will be particularly pleased with the improved home form of his side, with Saturday's victory over Brighton & Hove Albion being their first win at St Andrew's in 10 months.

It was away from home that they excelled last term, and Clark will be hoping for more of that success this weekend, despite losing at Middlesbrough on the opening day.

Seven points from four games would certainly represent a good return for Birmingham, who came within seconds of being relegated to League One on the final day of last season.

Clark appears to have settled on Clayton Donaldson and Wes Thomas as his preferred front two, and the duo are once more expected to lead the line for the Blues on Saturday.

Recent form

Brentford: DDLW

Birmingham: LWWD

Possible starting lineups

Brentford: Button; McCormack, Tarkowski, Craig, Bidwell; Odubajo, Dallas, Douglas, Pritchard, Judge; Proschwitz

Birmingham: Randolph; Spector, Edgar, Hall, Grounds; Cotterill, Caddis, Davis, Novak; Donaldson, Thomas

Sports Mole says: 1-1

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