Brentford derby hero wants to '˜kick on', with Sunderland up next

The Griffin Park side extended their unbeaten Sky Bet Championship run to five matches with last weekend’s first home victory of the campaign, against Millwall.

Sawyers is delighted to see Brentford’s hard work paying off, with the derby win over the Lions lifting them to 18th place.

The Bees are just two points above the drop zone going into the visit of second-bottom Sunder-land, but the capital side are definitely only looking upwards under manager Dean Smith.

“Anybody can be a passing team if you are not doing it productively, but I think that we are starting to show our productivity,” said 25-year-old Sawyers, who hit the only goal to sink Millwall.

“We haven’t had the best of luck so far this season, but we are still in and around it.

“We are only eight points off the play-offs, so we aren’t too far away.

“We are at the quarter point of the season now, so we just have to keep building on our foundation.

“This is a good time to kick on.”

The St Kitts and Nevis international was pleased with the all-round performance which tamed Neil Harris’s Lions.

“We performed well even though we rode our luck a little bit with Dan Bentley making the penalty save,” he told iFollow Brentford.

“We created chances ourselves, so I think we got what we deserved.

“It was a different type of test for us.

“They were a bit similar to Bolton Wanderers with the fight in them. Everybody says that we are a pretty passing team, but I think we showed the other side.

“We have always had the belief amongst ourselves.

“People might come and press us and try us get us into a battle but (against Millwall) we stood up to that.”

Millwall defended deeply and Sawyers revealed how Brentford had thought about those tactics in advance.

“After training, Nico Yennaris took me aside and said we should do some finishing,” said Sawyers.

“The one that the keeper tipped over in the first half was something we had been working on.

“We spoke about shooting from distance before the game.

“Derby County did the same thing (defending deeply), but we didn’t manage to get the shots off.

“The more shots that we take from long distance then the more they have to come out.

“We have to have different ways of attacking.”