Romaine Sawyers has warned Middlesbrough to give Brentford respect otherwise they may come a cropper.

Boro fans will be expecting three points against a side they have beaten on every occasion since the Bees returned to the second tier.

The Saint Kitts and Nevis international, though, has never faced the Teessiders with Brentford and doesn't have the mental scarring from that era.

He said: “It's a new squad. I don't know the record. I just remember the play-off games.

“They're a good side so we've got to show them respect but we've got to get the respect that we deserve. Middlesbrough away is a good test but hopefully we can go there and show our skills.”

Romaine Sawyers

He added: “We spoke about that. Derby may look at us as little old Brentford. The more we play our good stuff and show them that that's not real if they feel that. If we have that belief we can go there and do something.”

Neither Boro nor Brentford will overly happy with their starts to the season but Sawyers feels that another team could be on the end of a heavy defeat.

“I think every team has a rut or bad form. We've not got the points but the performances are there,” Sawyers explained.

“We've set the standard and that's the baseline. We might have another Bolton game. We scored three worldies and we'll have another where we score three or four tap-ins.”