During the 2012–13 English football season, Brentford competed in Football League One. In one of the the club's most memorable seasons, the Bees took Premier League giants Chelsea to a replay in the fourth round of the FA Cup and suffered a dramatic last-minute defeat to Doncaster Rovers on the final day of the league season in a "winner takes all" match for automatic promotion to the Championship. The team rallied to beat Swindon Town in the play-off semi-finals, but were defeated by Yeovil Town in the final at Wembley Stadium.

After a 9th-place finish in League One at the end of his first season as manager of Brentford, Uwe Rösler had a desire to imprint his mark on the playing squad and remarked that the key to challenging for promotion during the 2012–13 season would be to score more goals. The need to continue operating on a similar budget to recent years meant that Rösler and sporting director Mark Warburton had to reduce the size of the squad and conduct a mass clearout, releasing stalwarts Karleigh Osborne, Marcus Bean, Sam Wood and veteran forward Gary Alexander's loan at Crawley Town was made permanent. The contracts of defenders Craig Woodman, Marcel Eger and Pim Balkestein were cancelled and six days into the season, winger Myles Weston was sold to Gillingham for an undisclosed fee. By the end of the summer transfer window, seven new players had been signed on permanent contracts – left back Scott Barron, central defenders Tony Craig and Harlee Dean, midfielder Adam Forshaw, winger Stuart Dallas and forwards Farid El Alagui and Paul Hayes. Three players were signed on loan – left back Jake Bidwell and midfielders Tom Adeyemi and Ryan Fredericks. Bidwell and Adeyemi would remain at Griffin Park for the duration of the season.