Leeds United backed to recover quickly by boss Garry Monk

First half goals from Romaine Sawyers and Lasse Vibe were enough to send United away empty-handed from Griffin Park as the Bees turned on the style.

Sawyers gave the home side the lead on 18 minutes when he smashed home from the edge of the box after Rob Green could only parry Sergi Canos’ angled drive from the left to safety.

And Canos was involved for the second just after the half hour when his low drilled shot from the right was palmed into the path of Vibe, who toe-poked home for his 13th of the season.

But Leeds boss Monk urged his players not to feel sorry for themselves or let the hard work of the season go to waste.

“We have another opportunity on Saturday and I know already from speaking to the lads at the end that they’ll be ready to put on a performance,” said Monk.

“It’s not often we have had to face back-to-back defeats this season, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We are still in a strong position, the same as we were two games ago.

“At the start of the season, nobody would have thought we would be where we are now. This group isn’t prepared to let all of the hard work put in throughout the season go to waste.”

Monk was quick to praise the performance of Tuesday night’s hosts, however, admitting they fully deserved the three points.

“Credit to them and how they played because they deserved the win,” said Monk. “I’ve watched a lot of Brentford this season and that’s one of the best first-half displays I’ve seen from them. They made it very difficult for us.

“They got the two goals which made it difficult, but we tried to respond and we had our chances. What we needed was for one of them to go in. It might have given us a chance to change the game, but it didn’t and no excuses.”