Chris Mepham has reacted positively after a difficult first Brentford start against Norwich, Dean Smith has revealed.
The young centre back was penalised in the box for pushing over Marley Watkins in the opening exchanges.
And he found it difficult to deal with the Canaries' attacking threat at times but showed the right desire to keep going, even when he was cramping up.
Smith said: “He's okay. The lad, for me, was harshly given a penalty against him. The player has won a penalty rather than giving it away. I thought ours wasn't a penalty either.
“Chris Mepham will be disappointed with how the game went but he cramped up after 60 minutes but played through so it's clear he's got a great attitude and a big heart.”
Mepham was let down by the senior players, especially in the last half an hour, as heads dropped following Norwich's second goal.
Smith added: “I thought the last 30 minutes was disappointing. A lot of our players looked like it was game over.
“Norwich had a lot of good players out there and it's easy to keep the ball when you're 2-0 up. If you're chasing around, they can score four, five, six.
“When they got the third it became damage limitation. I've had to put it into context of where we're at. The Bolton game is very important for us. I had to make them for the reasons at that time.”
