Gary Rowett was full of sympathy for his opposite number after Birmingham City condemned Brentford to a third straight defeat.

Clayton Donaldson won and converted a penalty against his old club early in a first half high on chances, but low on quality.

Brentford spurned several chances before Ryan Shotton tapped in a free-kick after an hour to punish the hosts’ wastefulness.

Scott Hogan’s late goal set up a tense finish, but City held on to move into fourth.

Rowett conceded his side were fortunate and admitted they needed to improve to maintain their position.

“We were pretty fortuitous, we certainly rode our luck. If luck was a horse, I think I’d have won the National today,” Rowett said.

“Brentford will be very disappointed they didn’t get anything out of the game and probably deserved to get something, but such is the Championship.

“We’ve had to defend last ditch today. We have to be gritty, we have to be tough, but we need to play with more composure than that.

“If we are going to stay in and around fourth, we are going to have to improve our performance levels considerably.”

The game started at a fierce pace and Yoann Barbet set up Maxime Colin 12 minutes in, but he miscued horribly wide.

Two minutes later, Daniel Bentley brought down Donaldson and the striker stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way.

Brentford almost levelled on 20 minutes, Barbet playing in Lasse Vibe, but he scuffed his shot straight at Tomasz Kuszczak.

They went close again after 26 minutes, Barbet finding Hogan with a cross, before Vibe missed a great opportunity and Birmingham bundled it away.

Their best chance came three minutes later, Romaine Sawyers playing Hogan in behind the defence, who poked the ball goalwards.

Shotton made a mess of his attempted clearance, but atoned with a vital block from Vibe’s follow-up.

Brentford had the first chance after the break, Jonathan Grounds’ mistake allowing Colin to shoot from 25 yards.

Kuszczak spilled his effort at Hogan’s feet, but recovered to make a crucial save.

City doubled their lead on 63 minutes, with Shotton tapping in Cotterill’s free-kick at the back post after Donaldson’s flick on.

Kuszczak pulled off another fantastic save on 71 minutes, tipping Hogan’s close-range header onto the bar.

But the striker persevered, nodding substitute Josh Clarke’s cross over the onrushing keeper on 77 minutes to give Griffin Park hope.

Hogan had the ball in the net again five minutes from time, but was denied a point by the linesman’s flag.

Dean Smith commended Brentford’s overall performance, but was left to rue their missed opportunities.

“I think if it was a boxing match, it would’ve been stopped,” Smith said.

“It was one of them where you feel frustrated, disappointed, but you know you’ve played really well. We’ve absolutely dominated the game.

“I thought our reaction to [the penalty] was really good. We passed the ball well, created chances and our problem was we didn’t take them today.

“It’s very hard to go into a dressing room after a performance like that, because what do you say to the players?

“You want them to keep playing like that. We’ve just had two games where we should be sat here six points richer, but we’ve got zero.”

Read more on Brentford each week in The Football League Paper