Brentford head into their Championship fixture with Wigan Athletic on Saturday afternoon having won each of their three fixtures since the resumption.
While Wigan are another of the form teams in the division, the Latics are back in action for the first time since being placed into administration on Wednesday afternoon.
Match preview
© Reuters
Having avoided dropping any points since their return to action, Brentford will now feel that they have genuine hope of claiming one of the two automatic promotion places before the end of the season.
Over the same period, Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion have recorded five points fewer than the third-placed team, resulting in Brentford halving the deficit on the latter of those clubs.
Thomas Frank can only have been left impressed with the level of the performances from his players, who now have four successive wins to their name without conceding a goal.
The manner of those results have also ensured that they possess a far superior goal difference to the clubs above them, a potentially-decisive statistic come the end of the campaign.
Although Frank will call on tunnel vision from his players, there will be an awareness that each victory will only intensify the pressure on the shoulders of the division's long-time top two.
After comfortably disposing of Stoke City on Tuesday evening, Wigan created further distance between themselves and the bottom three, realistically leaving the club just one more success from retaining their second-tier status for another 12 months.
However, Wednesday's announcement regarding their administration has left the club as underdogs to remain in the division, effectively putting the Latics in a position where they need to finish 12 points above the bottom three to avoid relegation.
As it stands, eight points is the gap between themselves and 22nd-placed Hull City, and Paul Cook will be optimistic about extending that margin over the final six matches.
That said, from a mental perspective, Wigan's players face the challenge of having to maintain promotion-level form at a time when the club's existence could be at stake, a scenario which they could not have envisaged at the start of the week.
Brentford Championship form: LDWWWW
Wigan Athletic Championship form: WWDWWW
Team News
Barring any late fitness issues, Brentford boss Frank is expected to stick with the same starting lineup.
Although Joel Valencia got himself on the scoresheet at the Madejski Stadium, Bryan Mbeumo will keep his place on the right flank.
Having netted a double against Stoke City on Tuesday evening, Kai Naismith will be recalled to the first XI in place of Michael Jacobs.
Like their hosts, only unforeseen injury problems are likely to lead to Cook making further alterations to his team.
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Martin; Dalsgaard, Jansson, Pinnock, Henry; Marcondes, Norgaard, Dasilva; Mbeumo, Watkins, Benrahma
Wigan Athletic possible starting lineup:
Marshall; Byrne, Kipre, Balogun, Robinson; Williams, Morsy; Jacobs, Dowell, Lowe; Moore
We say: Brentford 2-1 Wigan Athletic
Given the turmoil of recent days, it remains to be seen how Wigan's players will react. However, with Brentford having already built momentum over recent games, we expect the Bees to claim another three points.
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Brentford win with a probability of 55.23%. A draw had a probability of 24.4% and a win for Wigan Athletic had a probability of 20.35%.
The most likely scoreline for a Brentford win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.86%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.65%) and 2-1 (9.58%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.56%), while for a Wigan Athletic win it was 0-1 (6.98%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 5.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Brentford would win this match.
