MIDFIELDER Ryan Tunnicliffe admitted Blackburn Rovers got what exactly what they deserved in yesterday’s 3-1 defeat at Brentford.

In what was their final away game before Christmas Rovers fought back after each of the three goals they gift-wrapped for the grateful Bees.

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But Tunnicliffe, who is on a season-long loan from Fulham, accepted they had left themselves with too much to do after falling behind for the 12th time in 21 Championship matches this season.

He said: “Every time you lose it’s disappointing.

“We created chances but we always create chances. What we need to do is shore it up at the other end and we’ll be all right.

“Over the 90 minutes they deserved the win if I’m being honest.

“We kept going when we were 3-1 down, trying to pin them back and get back into the game, even with 88, 89 minutes on the clock.

“But overall I think they deserved the win.

“It’s massively frustrating. We say every time at half-time after we go in 1-0 down or it is 1-1 that we need to start brighter. We can’t keep saying it.

“I thought we started all right for five or 10 minutes and then they got into the game.

“But, like I say, we can’t keep going 1-0 down, especially away to a team like Brentford, who are flying.”

The fifth-placed Bees’ sixth win in their last seven matches at Griffin Park hauled them six points clear of Rovers who, as a result of their first back-to-back defeats since March, slipped to eighth and four points off the play-offs.

Ewood Park old boy Jonathan Douglas opened the scoring in the 16th minute after a cross into the box was not cleared by Grant Hanley and then Ben Marshall.

Rovers top-scorer Rudy Gestede restored parity on the stroke of half-time with his 12th goal of the season and his fifth in as many away games.

But Brentford killed the contest with a quickfire second-half double from Andre Gray and Jota that owed much to further inept defending.

Rovers boss Gary Bowyer, who had also bemoaned his side’s soft underbelly in the 2-1 home to Sheffield Wednesday the week before, said: “We’re hugely disappointed.

“We got ourselves back in the game just before half-time and then I thought we started the second half well.

“The manner of all three goals were poor from us. We said last week about the goals that we conceded against Sheffield Wednesday and it’s the same again.

“That’s the major disappointment.”

Bowyer believed the outcome might have been different had Marshall taken a gilt-edged opportunity four minutes after Gray had put the Bees back in front and three minutes before Jota completed the scoring.

He said: “The big moment today is when Ben Marshall hit the post at 2-1. If that goes in it gives us even more confidence.

“But you can’t come away from home and concede three goals and expect to win a game.”

Bees boss Mark Warburton said: “We stood up to a tough, physical challenge.

“You look at the likes of Gestede, of (Shane) Duffy and Hanley at the back, they are physical specimens and talented players.

“We dealt with that, moved the ball well, created chances, and I felt we were worthy winners in the end.”