Dean Smith remains upbeat about Brentford's play-off chase with the win at Sunderland being the perfect start to one of the most important weeks of the season.

The Bees host struggling Birmingham on Tuesday night before making the trip to Leeds United on Saturday.

Going into the game at Sunderland, the west Londoners were eight points adrift of the play-offs but three games earlier were five points closer to the top six and Smith knows that can change again.

Smith said after the win at the Stadium of Light: “Three games ago we were three points off the play-offs and three games later we were eight points off.

“The performances haven't been any different to what they were at Reading – we haven't got the W in the column.

“It was nice that we got such a good performance in the first half and came away with the three points and hopefully closed the gap on the play-off places.”

Bristol City threw away a 2-0 lead to draw with Leeds, a week after they surrendered a 3-0 advantage against the Black Cats, to mean Brentford are now six points adrift of the play-offs.

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