As nice as it is to play thrilling football, Dan Bentley believes Brentford have now proved they can dig out results by going back to basics too.

It was the same old story for the Bees for the first few months of the season – plenty of plaudits from opposition mangers for the way they play, but very few points to show for it.

But the team's recent upturn in results has coincided with a willingness to do roll their sleeves up while sticking as much as possible to their footballing principles.

“We'll take that all day long,” said Bentley after the win at Birmingham. “We want to play well of course and entertain the fans as it's part of the way we play football, but if we're going to play slightly scrappy in stages and patches and get three points, we'll take it.

Nitty gritty: Brentford clear their lines at Birmingham

“It was a resilient performance on Saturday and tonight (at Birmingham) and we've got six points in the bag. So going forward, if we do have to be scrappy and win the physical battle rather then being pretty and doing the things we're good at, sometimes that will have to be the case.

“But I'd rather have that as a back up plan than trying to play football and it not working. Tonight showed how resilient we are and how together we are as a team. It wasn't pretty at times, we didn't get into our rhythm, and we were a little bit sloppy to begin with.”

Brentford nevertheless turned things around and came away from St Andrews with a 2-0 win – making it a night to forget for Brum's former Bees trio Jota, Maxime Colin and Harlee Dean.

“We knew they had three lads who were with us in the summer, but there was no more impetus than in any other game,” said Bentley. “Of course you want to get one over and beat them, but off the pitch we'll all stay friends. We had a great group when they were here, so that will continue.

“Their position in the league is probably a reflection of the way they are playing rather than the players they have got. They looked low on confidence, and we tried to capitalise on that.

Video Loading

“They're a good team with some very talented individuals, but we had a game plan defensively which I think worked, and despite being sloppy, we created some chances. It wasn't one of our best performances, but we got the result regardless.”

The Bees will now face another team low on confidence tomorrow when they host Leeds United, who have lost six of their last seven games.

“They're on an indifferent run of form at the moment,” Bentley added. “So you could say they're a bit of a wounded animal. Again they're a team that have got a lot of talented individuals in the squad, a team we can't take lightly.

“But we will go into it full of confidence after these last two results. Our game plan will be to get the three points playing football, but if we have to go nitty gritty, we have shown we can do that too.”