Brentford boss Dean Smith bemoaned 'inconsistent' referee James Linington in the aftermath of the Bees' 3-1 defeat to in-form Cardiff City.

The west Londoners had two penalty shouts waved away and were subject to some rough handling by burly Bluebirds defenders throughout the encounter.

Smith wore a wry smile as he said: "For me I thought he was inconsistent today. You've got to deal with the physicality Cardiff bring."

He had earlier bemoaned the official on Sky Sports saying: “The refereeing stinks of inconsistency. We needed a strong ref and I don’t think we got one tonight, for me he was inconsistent.”

Brentford made a stunning start through a Neil Maupay goal but failed to press their advantage, which disappointed Smith.

Smith added: "I thought we started the game extremely well and probably should have scored in the first minute and the keeper (Neil Etheridge) has made a good save.

"We were excellent in the first 20 minutes but the only danger was we left the backdoor open a little too often.”

Speaking about the Cardiff performance after goals from Sol Bamba, Callum Paterson and Kenneth Zohore cancelled out Maupay's early strike., Smith acknowledged their uncompromising style.

He explained: "They're very strong aerially in both boxes and that's certainly something we have to get better at.

Dean Smith

"Every time the ball got thrown into our box it was panic stations. We've got to have a little bit more nous about us in that box," he added.

Brentford's players looked deflated as they filed out of the Griffin Park dressing room and Smith knows he will have to lift his side when they meet up again on Thursday.

He said: "On another day the score line would be different but unfortunately its fine margins.

"They will be deflated as they felt they could have won. We probably just lacked that little bit of quality.”

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