Romaine Sawyers does not care a jot that Brentford's fine form has not been taken notice of outside of the club.

The Bees claimed a fabulous 2-0 win over Brighton before having the better of a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa and then thumping Preston by five goals to nil.

Despite these head-turning results, the Bees still find themselves second-last on Football League Tonight and dismissed as a small club.

Sawyers, though, is happy for them to think that as it means that Brentford can take satisfaction in proving people wrong.

He said: “We've seen a few comments ahead of the Villa game of us being a small club.

“Let them think that and we'll go under the radar and we'll earn the respect and with this week, a lot of teams will open their eyes and take us seriously. We need to set our standards and focus on what we do.”

One of those was Sky Sports football pundit Ian Holloway, who had tipped Brentford to finish 22nd and suffer relegation back to League One before the start of the season.

“Brentford are regressing. Mark Warburton got them punching above their weight,” he said ahead of the campaign.

“They still haven't replaced Andre Gray and Alan Judge will be missing for the start of the season. They could be in trouble.”

That all changed when the Bees claimed a victory at Brighton and, in his predictions ahead of the draw at Villa, he did an about turn before tipping Brentford to win at Villa Park.

He wrote: “I didn't see Brentford's wonderful win at Brighton on Saturday coming.

(Image: LEWIS DARLING)

“I put them in the relegation zone in my pre-season predictions and I apologise wholeheartedly, they've lost some good players but they've got some good ones in.”

Sawyers was aware of those comments and he is more than happy for Brentford to slip under the radar as it all about what the squad do, not what others think.

The midfielder added: “I saw those comments as you do but it's all about us.

“People will talk and you can understand why they say we're a small club but there are some massive clubs in the Championship.

“We're happy to be dark horses. We believe in ourselves and we've got to keep going.”