Co-director of football Phil Giles has admitted lessons have been learned at the club since the doomed appointment of Marinus Dijlkhuizen.

The Dutchman was sacked in September after a poor start to the season that left the Bees looking over their shoulders at a Championship relegation scrap.

Ex-Everton midfielder Lee Carsley revived the club's fortunes, but will leave Brentford at the end of December after the appointment of Walsall manager Dean Smith as Dijkhuizen's permanent replacement.

Smith, a face in the crowd for the 1-1 draw at Bolton Wanderers on Monday, is set to be introduced to the media at Griffin Park today after being confirmed in the role earlier this week.

Carsley was in charge at the Macron stadium - having initially said the win over Nottingham Forest nine days earlier would be his last match at the helm - after talks with first choice target Swansea City target Pep Clotet broke down last week.

And Giles, who oversaw Dikhuizen's appointment, is confident the Bees now have the right man at the helm t=for the club to become a Premier League force.

"Appointing Marinus was a risk – in particular because he didn’t have any previous experience of English football," he said in a statement yesterday.

"That it didn’t work out was personally disappointing for me, as both Marinus and his assistant Roy Hendriksen are good men with great integrity.

"The board of the club were keen to understand what lessons had been learned from the recruitment process last summer. 

"A key difference this time around is we [Giles and fellow co-director of football Rasmus Ankersen] are now embedded at the training ground, whereas last summer we had to put the coaching staff together from the outside. 

"We  now understand the different personalities in the football department and this time we aren’t trying to simultaneously hire several other members of the coaching staff.

"It was always going to be a challenge to make that work effectively at the first time of asking."

He added: "We believe we’ve appointed the right person for the job.

"Dean has significant coaching experience in English football, including more than four years as manager at Walsall.

"He is a hugely likeable man with strong leadership skills and the ability to immediately manage and command the respect of the players and support staff.

"He wants to play football in a bright and attractive way – the way Brentford fans have become accustomed to over recent seasons.

"As with all clubs in the Championship, we’d like to think we have a chance of being promoted to the Premier League at some point over the coming seasons. Dean shares that amibition."