During the 1952–53 English football season, Brentford competed in the Football League Second Division. A forgettable season, during which Tommy Lawton was appointed as the club's player-manager, ended with a 17th-place finish.

Brentford's 1952–53 pre-season preparations were thrown into disarray by the departure of secretary-manager Jackie Gibbons in August 1952. In his letter of resignation, Gibbons wrote of having failed to see "eye to eye" with the Brentford board. Long-serving assistant manager Jimmy Bain took over as caretaker until a permanent appointment could be made. 34 year old former Brentford forward Les Smith was the club's only signing and returned to Griffin Park after six years with Aston Villa.Half backs Bill Slater and forwards Johnny Paton and Jimmy Bowie were the only departures of note.

Brentford had a poor start to the Second Division season, winning just five of the opening 20 matches. Four defeats and no wins in a five match spell in September 1952 led caretaker Bain to break up his settled XI and experiment with playing players in different positions. Want-away captain Ron Greenwood left for First Division club Chelsea in October 1952, with forward Jimmy D'Arcy arriving in part-exchange. The tide began to turn in December, after back to back victories over Barnsley on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Forward Tommy Lawton was announced as Brentford's player-manager on 2 January 1953, with Jimmy Bain reverting to his previous role. Lawton was unbeaten in 9 of his first 12 matches, but the team lost confidence after 4–1 and 5–0 defeats to West Ham United and rivals Fulham respectively in late March and would win just once more before the end of the season, leading to a 17th-place finish.

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