Dean Smith believes the Bees can make a play-off push after their 2-1 win over Aston Villa.

Romaine Sawyers gave the Bees the lead but it was soon cancelled out by Josh Onomah before the break.

And Lasse Vibe bagged his fifth goal in four games to restore the lead and a brilliant save from Dan Bentley was enough to give the Bees the win.

He said: “It was a good team performance. It wasn't a deluxe performance which may be down to the conditions.

“I thought there'd be more mistakes than there was. There weren't many clear cut chances but I thought we were good value for the win.”

Villa boss Steve Bruce’s pre-match comments that the Bees’ expectations were not as high as his side’s were one factor in helping them stay in the play off hunt and Smith could see where he was coming from but insists the expectation is a play-off push.

“He’s probably right to be honest but it works in our favour because opposition supporters see us as little Brentford and are surprised when they see the standard of our football,” he said.

“Our expectation is to finish in the top six. We know that will be difficult because of the size and finances of other clubs in this division, but we have had two defeats in 17 league games and that is tremendous in this league,” said Smith.

“I’d like to have more competition for places at the moment, but performances like this show the strength, quality and character we have in this squad.

“It wasn’t a deluxe performance but given the fact that we have a lot of injuries and people playing out of position, but we just keep taking each game as it comes and trying to win them and we will always compete with big clubs like Villa.”