Bees defender James Tarkowski refused to blame the strikers after a night of missed chances at Sheffield Wednesday ended in a 1-0 defeat.

The reverse, on the back of two draws, leaves Brentford three points off the Championship play-offs.

Andre Gray, Alan Judge and Jota all missed golden chances before Kieran Lee struck the winner late on.

Tarkowski said: “Quite a few of the boys were down in the dressing room after the game because it was a tough one to take.

“We didn’t play badly and did enough to win.

“We had our chances and if we’d gone 1-0 or 2-0 ahead, we may have had more people back to defend the lead, and we may not have got caught the way we did.”

He added: “You cannot put the blame on the front men for missing the chances, we have to keep more clean sheets and that is something we’ve been saying in the dressing room.”