Thomas Frank said that his Brentford side’s performance was a long time in the making as they extended their unbeaten streak to six games with a comprehensive 3-1 win over Stoke.

Goals from Saïd Benrahma and Rico Henry, as well as a Ryan Shawcross own goal, were enough to give the Bees all three points at Griffin Park despite Benik Afobe’s effort for the visitors.

And the Brentford boss admitted that, despite beating Oxford United in the FA Cup and holding promotion chasers Norwich in recent weeks, this was a landmark display from his side.

“I, the fans, the players, the club have been waiting for a top performance like this,” he told Brentford's website.

“This was a more or less complete performance from the first second to the last second.

“We totally dominated and controlled the game; they had two shots in the whole game, one was a blocked shot. We created a lot of opportunities and we won a clear win, so we’re so pleased.

“I think all of us suffered in the bad run, but you can see that now we’re going forward and it’s so pleasing.

“The big thing I’ve continually talked about: we need to back each other, we need work hard, we need to stay together, and the togetherness was one of our biggest values, maybe the biggest one in Brentford.

“Fans, board, owner, staff, players, everybody and that’s been so big. You can see how everybody’s lifted; but we can’t be relaxed, we can’t be too sloppy, we have to continue.”

Brentford got the scoring underway in the seventh minute when a Benrahma corner caused chaos, Afobe smashing a clearance into the face of Shawcross, with the ball deflecting cruelly into Jack Butland’s goal.

Benrahma then put the finishing touches to a fine team move before Afobe grabbed one back on 23 minutes with a clean strike from the edge of the area.  

But Rico Henry sealed the points with his first goal for the club, weaving in from the touchline before finishing into Butland’s bottom corner.

And in what was Nathan Jones’s first game as Stoke boss after he moved across from Luton during the week, Frank was delighted to see the Potters struggle with his side’s formation as Jones tinkered from the touchline.

“I think Norwich did the same last week, so that shows us that something is going in the right direction and of course we’re pleased, but we want more – we need to keep our standards high.

“It’s nice that we’re on an unbeaten run for six games now – five in the league and one in the cup – and we want to continue.

“We have more confidence, you can see them talking on the pitch, all the players together, so it was pleasing.”