There will be no champagne chilling in Dagenham and Redbridge's cramped away dressing room tonight. Brentford's red and white bunting is still in storage at Griffin Park and the open-top bus remains locked in the garage. For manager Andy Scott, whose side need two points to rubber-stamp their promotion from League Two, this evening's trip across town is strictly business.

“We're going into this game with the same attitude we've had all season,” he said. “It would be disrespectful to think we're up.”

Scott's eagerness to keep Brentford grounded is understandable. A trip to Victoria Road is tough and even more so as Dagenham have play-off hopes of their own, although whether the Bees' 1,400-strong travelling support will heed his call for calm is questionable.

This season must have felt like one long fiesta for fans who have been force-fed a diet of mediocrity, and worse, for longer than they care to remember. Financial strife, relegation and the farcical seven-month reign of Terry Butcher had dragged a proud club into ignominy before Scott hauled them up by their bootlaces.

The 36-year-old, who had been recruited as Butcher's assistant to flesh out the latter's skeletal knowledge of life in the Football League, ensured survival after the ex-England defender was sacked in December 2007. He was appointed on a permanent basis the following summer: the revolution was under way.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to change,” Scott said. “You have to make your mark quickly otherwise the things that were going wrong before will keep going wrong.

“Some things were little. We made the guys eat breakfast and lunch together and we had little competitions on the dart board, or head tennis games to improve the spirit.

“Other things were more fundamental. We made training sharper and worked in more concentrated bursts.

“We have strict weight and core stability programmes and we use a lot of video analysis. It's a very professional environment.”

The changes have proved a masterstroke and not just in terms of results. Brentford are a side built in the steel-clad mould of their manager, their refusal to be bowed by apparently insurmountable odds a trait which features heavily in Scott's own back story.

Rejected by Wimbledon as a teenager — “Dave Bassett thought I was too short” — he shrugged off the disappointment to forge a reputation as a tenacious defender. Bassett, for one, was so impressed he later signed him for Sheffield United. “I admired that,” Scott said. “Dave was happy to admit when he was wrong.”

More daunting still was that fateful day in 2005 when he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart disorder. It effectively ended his playing days but provided Scott with a new spur. “I could have wallowed in self-pity but I couldn't afford to do that. I have a wife, two young sons and I want them to be proud of me.”

Now, he has injected that same self-belief into Brentford, with occasionally explosive results. Darren Powell was sent off at Bournemouth earlier this month after punching his fellow defender Karleigh Osborne, although it is telling that the visitors still won.

Scott admits he “would have been at the front of the queue to punch Darren had we lost”, but the flare-up at least proved his players cared.
“We've worked hard to get the right characters,” he added. “They have to be sensible, grounded and have a real desire to improve. If they want that, we can take the club further.”

Much further, in fact. Scott admits he considers League One to be a mere a stop-off en route to bigger ambitions. “We want to become a club that can cope in the Championship,” he added. If they do, even Scott might consider popping a cork or two in celebration.