Division Two: Burnley v Brentford - Pete Oliver's preview

THEY may have some way to go before matching Nottingham Forest's Football League record of 42 games without defeat, but Brentford will still bring a remarkable unbeaten run to Turf Moor on Saturday.

Last season's Third Division champions haven't lost in the League for 24 games, a sequence of results that started with a 4-2 win at Rotherham United on February 20 last year.

That victory coincided with the arrival of £100,000 signing Scott Partridge from Torquay United.

And neither Partridge, whose seven goals in 14 games helped the Bees clinch the title, or midfielder Paul Evans, who signed from Shrewsbury Town for £110,000 shortly after, have played on a losing Bees side in the League.

Brentford, managed by chairman and former Crystal Palace owner Ron Noades, won the Third Division by four points.

And they haven't flinched in the more exalted company of the Second Division, climbing to fifth in the table on the back of their unbeaten eight-match start.

And first-team coach Ray Lewington, who plays a major part in the team preparation along with backroom staff Terry Bullivant and Brian Sparrow, is confident Brentford will be able to handle the occasion presented by the Second Division match-of-the-day against Burnley.

He said: "They've four straight wins out of four at home and it certainly is going to be a big test.

"But one thing that amazes me about our lads, considering how inexperienced they are, it seems that the bigger the occasion the better we play. "So I don't think there will be any nerves before the game, I think they will just go out there and enjoy it.

"Turf Moor is a fantastic place to go and play. It's usually a good pitch and there are normally in excess of 10,000 people there.

"There will be a cracking atmosphere and we usually do well in that sort of situation so I've no worries whatsoever in terms of the lads freezing on the day.

"I think they will commit themselves properly as they have always done."

Brentford have won 14 times since Swansea City were the last team to lower their colours.

They are yet to win away from home this season but have drawn at places like Bury and Bristol Rovers.

And with that kind of record behind them, it goes without saying that they have made themselves very difficult to beat.

"The thing that pleases me so much is the resilience and enthusiasm. They never know when to pack it in, even when things aren't going for us," added Lewington.

Despite their hard core, Brentford still play an attacking game with three strikers in Partridge, Andy Scott, who once played under Burnley boss Stan Ternent on loan at Bury, and Lloyd Owusu, who scored 22 League goals last season and opened his account in Division Two with the winner against Cardiff City on Tuesday night.

And they are also capable of scoring goals from elsewhere as Evans proved emphatically against Preston last Saturday.

Having just conceded an equaliser, Evans scored virtually straight from the re-start when the ball was played back to him and he drove a shot over Teupo Moilanen from a distance subsequently measured at 62.1 yards, the ball taking 2.7 seconds to hit the back of the net.

Paul Crichton has been warned.

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