Brentford manager Thomas Frank praised his side's development at the back ahead of their Championship trip to Wigan on Saturday.

The Bees have conceded just 13 goals in 15 league matches this season, a record which is only bettered by Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday. It has been a key positive for Frank, who was nominated for October’s manager of the month award.

The Bees took 10 points from five league games last month to kick-start their Championship season after a sluggish start, and Frank believes it is sign of their plan coming together.

“In football there is always something to work on. At the beginning of the season we worked on the defence. Everyone can see how much better we defend this year,” he said.

“Everyone was disappointed about the Huddersfield game, but we only gave four shots away, throughout all of the games, in general, we have defended very well.”

Saturday’s shock 1-0 home defeat to Huddersfield had halted a run of three straight wins for Brentford, who have now slipped back in to the bottom half of the Championship.

Despite the defeat against the Terriers, Frank has been pleased by the progress his team has been making.

“I think we are closer and closer to our top performance, and then we need to hit that consistently every single week. That is what we are training for, that is what we are working so hard on every single day in training.”

Victory against the Latics would see the Bees record three away wins on the spin, something they have not done since April 2016.

Frank is hoping that his side will produce a commanding performance at the DW Stadium, but he is wary of his opponents.

“We will go up there with respect for Wigan, but with the mind that we are going to dominate the game. We know that we will have to find our way into the game, and once we have done that we can dominate more and more.

“We know they have some very good threats on crosses, getting lots of players in the box, we also know they are very dangerous at set-pieces. They are an energised team with lots of power, but we think we have an answer for that.

“We are confident going into this game, we know it will be very difficult, but we know we can get three points.”

Nikolaos Karelis, Sergi Canos and Josh Clarke are the only absentees for Brentford.