Uwe Rosler praised Hartlepool United after his charges were held to a 1-1 draw last weekend by their already-relegated hosts.

Luke James put Hartlepool ahead in the first half, but it took only 15 minutes for Marcello Trotta to equalise with his sixth league goal of the season.

The single point leaves Brentford needing a win over Doncaster Rovers on Saturday to secure automatic promotion to the Championship.

Rosler had a few ideas on why Bees under-performed last weekend, but in general he was at a loss.

"We did not have our best game. But all credit to Hartlepool, they were excellent for a team that had already been relegated," he said.

"They brought in some young players and they showed a lot of energy, but I wish that we could have played a little better.

"We gave a sloppy goal away but then our equaliser came at quite a good time for us."

He added: "We controlled the second half but without creating enough opportunities.

"Harry Forrester and Tom Adeyemi came off the bench and added a lot of energy to our play. We looked more dangerous with them.

"But we have to push on from that – we have to be better than that against Doncaster and I am sure, at home, we will.

"At Hartlepool, for some reason we were not as good as normal. Maybe the amount of games caught up with us.

"There was not a lot of atmosphere in the ground, the pitch was difficult and the circumstances maybe affected us but we did not perform to our normal levels, that is for sure."