Leeds United 'fear Brentford' ahead of key Championship promotion clash, says Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank believes Leeds United ‘fear’ his Brentford side ahead of Tuesday night’s key promotion clash at Griffin Park.

Victory would see Frank’s men go a point ahead of their second-placed visitors, who are in a rut after losing four of their last five in the Championship.

That possibility seemed remote when Marcelo Bielsa’s team opened up an 11-point gap over their nearest automatic promotion challengers in early December, but both they and fellow early-season pacesetters West Brom have endured a downturn in form that has blown the race wide open.

The Baggies remain top on 59 points, but just five points now separate second from seventh, and Frank believes Leeds have a job on their hands returning to the ground where a 2-0 defeat in April last season all-but ended their automatic promotion hopes following a similar collapse.

“I think that’s clear, of the two teams we definitely have more momentum than Leeds right now,” he said. “Everybody knows how much I respect Bielsa and his staff and what I think they’ve done to Leeds and how they’ve put them up as a club and as a team and I think it is potentially maybe the best team in this division.

“But besides that there’s no doubt they couldn’t pick a worse place to play on Tuesday night, they couldn’t. I’m 100 per cent sure they fear us going into this game.

“That’s not to say we’re just going to win it because one thing is momentum, one thing is history and all that and then you go into the game and every game has their own life. So we don’t know exactly what to expect but I promise you one thing; we will be absolutely at it and ready to attack.”

While Leeds’ desperation to return to the top flight after a 16-year absence is clear, Brentford’s promotion push has come as a slight surprise.

With a move to a new stadium at Lionel Road set for next season, the Bees are seen as a club on the up, but Frank says the pressure on them to reach the Premier League this time around is far less than their rivals.

“There’s no doubt that the other clubs up there, the pressure is so much bigger,” he added. “Of course it is. From supporters and the media and the history of the clubs and all that. So of course, it’s bigger there, but that’s one thing, the outside pressure.

“The pressure we put on ourselves to perform is as big as in the other clubs, but the outside pressure, it’s natural, I think is so much bigger in the other clubs and I don’t think that has advantages for them.”

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