Ollie Watkins believes that Brentford have enough momentum to still finish in the top two and has warned that Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion should be looking over their shoulders in the Championships race for automatic promotion.
While Marcelo Bielsa’s team have a six-point gap as a result of that last-gasp win away to Swansea City on Sunday afternoon, the faltering Baggies are only three points clear of the West Londoners who have won games seven in a row.
Asked if the top two should still be nervous of their nearest challenger, Watkins said: “Yeah I’m sure any team would. When other teams are winning and you’ve dropped points, you would… players do take notice but we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves and just win as many games as possible and carry on."
Thomas Frank’s team host Preston North End at Griffin Park on Wednesday evening before travelling to Stoke at the weekend with relegated Barnsley the opposition on the final day of the regular campaign.
But amid fears that Brentford may have peaked too soon if they need to compete in the play-offs, Watkins said they can go up another gear if required. “I feel like these last two games we’ve had more to give,” he added.
“The Derby game – we won that comfortably in the end [3-1] and still I feel like we could have played better. So it’s nice, we’ve won these last two games and we can still do more.
“It’s all down to ourselves really.
"If we don’t work hard, if we stop running and doing the basics then we won’t make the automatic spots but if we carry on doing what we’re doing, I’m confident we will.”
