Tony Mowbray felt Rovers gifted Brentford their second and third goals as they fell to a 5-2 defeat at Brentford.

Rovers were 2-0 up inside seven minutes thanks to goals from Bradley Dack and Danny Graham, two players forced off injured in the second half.

Said Benrahma scored after 14 minutes, before the Bees hit four after the break, through Ollie Watkins, Neal Maupay and Sergi Canos, to add a resounding look to the scoreline at Griffin Park.

But it was Watkins’ two goals that most disappointed Mowbray, firing in to the corner from a short free kick, before he headed in to an empty net after David Raya missed the high ball.

Mowbray said: “It turned in to a difficult afternoon, but for long spells we were pretty good and deserved to score more than the two we did.

“We had to make a decision with Bradley and Danny who were both struggling. We decided to give both five minutes but they both weren’t right.

“They are two pretty important players for us, with their leadership qualities as well, and without them we lost a little bit of that.

“I think we got a bit stretched. We gifted them the second and third goals.

“The second goal, we work really hard on defending free kicks and it was really disappointing that he could just roll it square and the lad shoots in to the corner, without it getting blocked.

“The third goal, the goalie decides to come and try and help the defence and gets himself mixed up and it’s in the net.

“We then went chasing the goal but then the game ran away from us at the end. It got too stretched and we were everything that our team is not.

“We played against a good team, let’s give them some credit. They have some good footballers in the forward areas, we knew that, and I thought we dealt with that for long parts, but not at the end.”

Mowbray felt there was a foul on Lewis Travis in the build up to the first goal, seen by referee Andy Davies, before the hosts attacked after the midfielder was robbed of possession.

“I could stand here and talk about the officials. I have never seen so many strange decisions,” Mowbray added.

“Yet you lose 5-2, you can’t blame the referee.

“But it was a foul on Travis for their first goal, he was going to blow the whistle, but because he doesn’t fall over he doesn’t give a foul. If he falls over then he gives a free kick.

“He put the whistle to his mouth, Travis doesn’t fall over, he lets them play on and they score.”