Smith and Holloway have one eye on the Championship ahead of derby cup clash

Tonight’s fixture may be a local derby, but Holloway and Smith have one eye on matches against Cardiff and Wolves - both early season high-flyers - in the Championship this weekend.

“We will have a strong team out which is designed to cause Brentford as many problems as possible, but we obviously need to be mindful that we have a trip to Cardiff on Saturday,” Holloway said.

“But I am excited about the team that I will be putting out there.”

Holloway’s opposite number is expected to make changes after a start to the campaign that has yielded just one point from four league matches for Brentford.

“We’ll have to give some minutes but we’re restricted at the moment as we have a lengthy injury list and Ryan Woods on compassionate leave as well,” admitted Smith.

“The players are confident anyway. We’ve got Wolves on Saturday as well. We’ve got a number of players who haven’t played like John Egan and Andreas Bjelland.”

“It’ll be nice to go there and get a win but the important thing is our league form,” Smith continued.

“We’ve played four games and we could be sat with twelve points but we have one.”

Both managers utilised their squads for their first-round victories and it could bring a similar approach. QPR made nine changes for their 1-0 win over Northampton Town in the last round, while Kamo Mokotjo was the only Bees man to start both the opening-day defeat by Sheffield United and the Cup win over AFC Wimbledon three days later.

Mokotjo is looking forward to getting involved in a west London derby after experiencing one of Europe’s fiercest clashes while playing in Holland.

“I played for Feyenoord against Ajax so I have experience of it and those games but it’s different here,” the South African said.

“I’ve heard it’s huge. We’re up for that task as we’re up for all games. We’re working on the same things and I’m looking forward to the game.”