Brentford boss Mark Warburton has warned Harlee Dean he faces a fight to regain his shirt from James Tarkowski.

The January arrival from Oldham has helped the Bees to three successive shut-outs in Dean's absence and bagged his first goal in Tuesday's 2-0 win against Tranmere at Griffin Park.

Dean returned to full training earlier today and is back in contention for Saturday's clash with promotion rivals Leyton Orient, but Warburton says he might have to settle for a place on the bench.

He said: "James did really well. He attacks the ball in both boxes and it was another good performance from him.

"Harlee will be champing at the bit to get his place back, but we need the competition and it's a nice problem to have.

"We've got three top quality centre-backs fighting for two shirts. There's a lot of games coming up, so we'll need all of our squad."

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Second-half goals from Tarkowski and Clayton Donaldson kept Brentford's automatic promotion push on track with another home win.

And Warburton added: "Teams come here to park the bus and slow the tempo down. We have to play at our intensity.

"We moved the ball well in the second half and once the first goal came I knew there would be more."