West Ham United continue preparations for the 2021/22 season with a pre-season fixture at Premier League new boys Brentford at 3pm on Saturday.
With a fortnight to go until the Premier League campaign kicks-off, the Hammers travel across London for what promises to be an exciting and challenging 90 minutes against opponents who won the Championship Play-Off final in May.
A crowd in excess of 10,000 is expected, including hundreds of West Ham supporters, as the Irons make their first ever visit to Brentford Community Stadium.
The game is being broadcast live in the UK by BT Sport 1HD, while you can follow the game live via whufc.com and our social media channels. We will have goals, extended highlights and exclusive post-match reaction for you shortly after full-time.
The Irons will wear their new Umbro Home Kit for the third time in Scotland, and you can get your hands on it now either by visiting our Online Store here, or by visiting one of our four Official Club Stores.
Ticket news
West Ham United’s allocation of tickets for Saturday’s game has completely sold out.
Brentford are only selling tickets to their own Season Ticket Holders and Members, so Hammers fans without tickets should not travel to the match.
Team news
West Ham United could hand a debut to goalkeeper Alphonse Areola after the France international completed a season-long loan from Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday.
David Moyes welcomes back Vladimír Coufal, Tomáš Souček and Andriy Yarmolenko from their post-UEFA Euro 2020 break and all three have been in training at Rush Green this week.
Only former Bees loanee Winston Reid, who is at the Tokyo Olympic Games with New Zealand, and Declan Rice, who returns to pre-season training next Monday, remain unavailable.
Brentford have strengthened their squad after winning promotion to the Premier League for the first time, most notably recruiting Norway defender Kristoffer Ajer from Celtic and Nigeria midfielder Frank Onyeka from Danish side FC Midtjylland.
The opposition – Brentford
It has been quite a year for Brentford.
The west London side were edged out by near-neighbours Fulham in the 2020 Championship Play-Off final, but bounced back from that disappointment to move into their new 17,250-capacity stadium and win promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history in May by defeating Swansea City at Wembley Stadium.
Now, the 132-year-old club is preparing for its debut Premier League campaign, having been rewarded for being well-run and establishing a hugely successful recruitment and coaching system that has seen them bring in talented players from all over the world and develop them in recent years.
Among those who have benefitted from Brentford’s innovative approach – the Bees scrapped their Academy in 2016 and installed a development team, Brentford B, to play friendly matches against senior opposition – have been Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa, Brighton & Hove Albion striker Neal Maupay and West Ham United attacking midfielder Saïd Benrahma.
The changes were a brave move by a club founded as long ago as 1889, but they are paying off.
This is not the first time Brentford have enjoyed success, however, as the Bees flew high under the management of Harry Curtis in the 1930s, winning promotion to the old First Division and finishing in the top six in three consecutive seasons between 1936-38. That period also saw half-back Billy Scott become Brentford’s first England international in 1936.
The Bees were relegated immediately after the Second World War and dropped into the fourth tier in the early 1960s. A single season in the second tier in 1992/93 aside, Brentford spent every season between 1947 and 2014 in the bottom two divisions of the Football League.
Which makes the club’s recent rise to prominence, with a flourishing reputation for attractive, high-tempo, offensive football, all the more impressive.
Under the ownership of lifelong Brentford fan, former trader and professional gambler Matthew Benham, the improvement was overseen, initially, by Mark Warburton, who led Brentford to the Championship, then Dean Smith who established them there before departing for Aston Villa, and since 2018 has been continued by Dane Thomas Frank.
Now, the reward for their combined work is Brentford embarking on their most-exciting season in nearly 85 years.
Previous meetings
West Ham United and Brentford have met 78 times previously when you include London League, Southern League, war-time league and Football League fixtures.
The first meeting came way back on 11 September 1897, when Thames Ironworks FC defeated Brentford 1-0 in the London League at the Memorial Grounds, with left winger James Reid scoring the only goal.
Fourteen years later, the pair shared eleven goals in a Southern League First Division match at the Boleyn Ground, with Danny Shea and William Kennedy both scoring hat-tricks in a 7-4 West Ham win!
During the First World War, the goals continued to fly in, with the Hammers recording 8-3, 7-2 and 7-3 victories over the Bees.
After Brentford won an FA Cup fourth round tie in 1927, the first-ever Football League fixture between the two was in the Second Division at Griffin Park on 2 September 1933. The struggling Hammers were thumped 4-1.
After meeting in the Second Division regularly between 1947-54, there was a 38-season break before we drew 0-0 at Griffin Park in Division One on 20 December 1992.
The most-recent competitive match between the two clubs was over 28 years ago, on 17 April 1993. Billy Bonds’ West Ham scored a vital 4-0 home win at the Boleyn Ground on their way to winning promotion, with Martin Allen, Peter Butler, Trevor Morley and Kevin Keen on target.
How can I follow the game?
A crowd in excess of 10,000 is expected, including hundreds of West Ham supporters, as the Irons make their first ever visit to Brentford Community Stadium.
Brentford are only selling tickets to their own Season Ticket Holders and Members until midday on Saturday, so Hammers fans without tickets should not travel to the match.
However, the game is being broadcast live in the UK by BT Sport 1HD, while you can follow the game live via whufc.com and our social media channels. We will have goals, extended highlights and exclusive post-match reaction for you shortly after full-time.
