Brentford might have slipped to a third successive defeat, but head coach Dean Smith reckons his men are a match for anyone.

The Bees crashed 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough on Tuesday to follow up Saturday's 1-0 FA Cup third round exit at the hands of League One Walsall and a 2-1 league defeat at Birmingham City on January 2 with another reverse.

A second half David Button own goal proved the difference between the two teams in a match Smith felt Brentford had done more than enough to win.

It was Brentford's sixth successive defeat to title chasing Teessiders since winning promotion to the Championship in 2014.

“We probably shaded it marginally,” Smith told the club's website.

“I thought we started the game excellently for the first 20 minutes and then at the end there they were hanging on as well. It was a good performance from us and that’s all you can ask for.

“I’ve just said to the players ‘don’t buy into this Middlesbrough hoodoo because they are a team that’s top of the league and you’ve played really well against them and performed really well and if you do that against other teams you’ll win’.”

He added: “Against teams like that you’ve got to take your chances.

“Unfortunately we didn’t do that, the goalkeeper’s made some good saves as well.

"People were saying because of their clean sheet record you can’t breach them, but we managed to do that but just didn’t put the ball in back of the net, which is the important thing.

“They’ve proved to themselves that they can be more than a match for anybody in this league at any given time.”

Brentford host Burnley and former striker Andre Gray on Friday.