One player looking forward to Saturday’s game more than most will be skipper Michael Dobson, who will be eager to renew his acquaintance with his former manager, Martin Allen.

Dobbo has told the Official Site:

“He obviously had an opinion that I wasn’t his first choice for some reason or another.

That’s fair enough. I put my head down and tried my hardest but no matter what I did I wasn’t going to play so it was time to move on.

It made my decision easier to move on when I wasn’t offered a new contract and it has given me a new lease of life.”

When the combative midfielder joined the Saddlers, Brentford fans were asked for their opinions on him on their message boards. More than one expressed their admiration for Dobson and said that he suffered, like others, from a breakdown in their relationship with the prickly Allen, which had little to do with their football abilities. That breakdown eventually lead to Dobson being loaned out to Reading (ironically playing in a higher Division) and then not being offered a new contract.

Whatever the case, Dobson will feel he has something to prove on Saturday, although he won’t be too close to Allen on the pitch, as the Manager is serving a touchline ban, follwing his “sending off” in their home defeat by Hereford last weekend.