Lewington's staying cool in a season of turmoil

Ray Lewington has every right to be uneasy after nearly three months as caretaker-manager of a club on a cost-cutting drive and engulfed by uncertainty.

The Brentford chief has no money to spend on new players, loaned or otherwise. He has seen chairman Ron Noades - who resigned as manager in November - sell two of his top men and has been warned more could be going.

He also had to stand by as Noades moved the team out of their Godstone training ground to a cheaper base.

But even with talks on a permanent Brentford manager put off until the summer and the chairman trying to move the club out of Griffin Park, Lewington has found reasons to be cheerful.

He has steered his team into the southern final of the LDV Vans Trophy and tonight they go to Division Two leaders Millwall trying to maintain their outside hopes of making the play-offs.

"Ron is still doing all the office work so I am still able to concentrate on what I enjoy most, which is coaching," Lewington said. "The players we have got, whether by luck or judgement, are a pleasure to work with and have just got on with things.

"All the uncertainty and insecurity is more unsettling for them than for me.

"I have a year left on my contract in the summer and Ron and I will sit down and talk about the manager's position then."

Lewington was manager at Fulham for four years from 1986. He joined Brentford from Crystal Palace, where he was coach, and linked up with Noades who had sold his stake in The Eagles and bought into Brentford. They guided the Bees out of Division Three in their first season but have had little success since.

Lewington said: "I knew exactly what I was getting into when I came here so I cannot have any complaints.

"If you look at our division, most of the clubs at the top are the ones with money and many have the big support.

"There were always going to be limitations at Brentford."

Resilient is the word Lewington uses to describe the players he is working with.

They were upset when top scorer Andy Scott and midfielder Rob Quinn were sold to Oxford for a combined fee of £150,000 last month.

But Lewington and his coaching team convinced them to try to make the best of their situation. Their league form has been patchy since, but a 3-2 win at Swansea on Wednesday put them two games against Southend away from the LDV Vans Trophy Final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

It also added to interest in the final stages of Brentford's season and a good result tonight would help too.

"It is a tough game but we want to give our best against local rivals in front of the television cameras," he said.