Dean Smith has explained why he made five changes for Brentford's draw with Preston, revealing that three of them were enforced.

Chris Mepham dropped out of the starting XI after coming down with an illness on the eve of the game.

Ryan Woods, on the other hand, was unable to shake off an ankle knock sustained against Derby, while Sergi Canos started his three match ban.

“I was forced into three changes,” Smith revealed. “Sergi Canos got sent off last week, Chris Mepham was ill this morning, and Ryan Woods got a whack on the ankle last week.

“He was due to train Thursday and Friday but he couldn’t get through training because of the pain in his ankle.

“We had to change that around and I thought that Josh McEachran did well today. We have a squad of players who know how we want to play.

“The ones not in the starting XI have a good idea of how we want to approach the game and there’s a great tactical understanding so it was easy to put John Egan back into the team today.”

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