New Brentford manager Dean Smith has thanked Lee Carsley for smoothing his path at Griffin Park.
Smith this week took the reins from interim manager Carsley as the long term replacement for Marinus Dijkhuizen in the Bees' hot seat.
He takes over a club far less chaotic than it was two months ago when the Dutchman departed, which is mainly down to Carsley, who will leave Brentford later this month.
Smith said: “If you look at how the team is doing, Lee has already steadied the ship. I am coming into a place that is working very well at the moment, and that is down to Lee.
“Because of this, I won't need have a massive input at first. I can just concentrate on the games for the first few weeks and take a look at the football club.
“Normally when a manager comes in it's because something is wrong, but Brentford fortunately had some like Lee who could step up and turn things around. I will use his counsel.
“Lee made it clear from the start that he didn't want to be manager, but he takes great pride in helping turn around what was a faltering start to the season. All credit to him for the way he has handled it from the start.”
Smith watched from the stands as his new club drew at Bolton on Monday night, and he admitted he doesn't see the need for much tweaking.
He added: “What I saw was a good footballing side with a good attacking threat, and two centre backs who defended manfully. We tested their keeper and probably should have won.
“I have managed against a lot of the players before – like Alan Judge when he was at Notts County and Jonathan Swift when he was at Rotherham – and that was one of the exciting things about coming here, knowing they're good players and that I can help them develop.”
