Brentford boss Dean Smith backs his players to register their first away league victory of the season as they get set to face Frank Lampard’s Derby County at Pride Park tomorrow.

The Bees have made an encouraging start to the season and currently sit third in the Championship but have been noticeably more prolific at home where all four of their league victories have come.

And after a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town on Tuesday, Smith is determined to ensure his charges’ latest test at ninth-placed Derby ends with all three points returning to west London.

“All four games that we’ve played we feel we should have won. You go back to Stoke City and we’ve made a big mistake for their goal,” Smith told the club’s website.

“We were excellent all game, played Stoke off the park and should have had two penalties. We go to Aston Villa and they equalise in the last eight seconds of the game, we go to Blackburn and they have two attempts on our goal all game and we lose 1-0, and then Tuesday night against Ipswich.

“There isn’t an awful lot we need to do to start winning games away from home. Performance-wise I’m not too critical of the players.”

Derby were also left frustrated in midweek when they were held at home by Blackburn, so both sides will feel Saturday’s meeting represents an excellent opportunity as the Bees look to return to the automatic playoff places.

Smith, though, has predicted a different kind of challenge from that faced at Portman Road, citing the Rams’ ambitions as a key factor.

“I think Derby’s expectations compared to Ipswich will be different,” he continued.  

“Their expectations are that they’re a top two club so they’ll expect to be entertained, excited and it is our job to make sure Derby County don’t do that.

“They’re a good footballing team and they’ve got really good players. They’ve got a very good squad of players.

“Frank’s gone in there and he has changed the system slightly – they’re more of a possession-based team now than probably they were and it will be a different game”