Harlee Dean was withdrawn in Brentford's battle to come from 2-0 down against Millwall to rescue a point because James Tarkowski was having more success driving into midfield.

Either Bees defender could have been withdrawn as they were struggling with the Lions' attacking threat and the latter lost Lee Gregory for the opener.

Defensive calamities handed Millwall a second before an Alex Pritchard penalty and Moses Odubajo strike rescued the Bees.

And manager Mark Warburton insisted that Dean, who hit back strongly at his fierce critics last week, was a victim of circumstances.

The Bees boss said: “Harlee was just tactical and no blame attached to him.

“I was thinking, last week we took off Bidders (Jake Bidwell) and moved Tarky to the left side.

“Today it was important Bidders was getting forward and supporting Pritch so we kept him on.

“Tarky was driving into midfield with the ball and doing that on a more regular basis than Harlee today. It was a tactical switch and no blame attached.”