Bees boss Dean Smith reckoned his men needed to take a leaf out of the club's youth team's book of defending to end a run of one win in their past eight Championship games.

Smith's men crashed 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday following defender Yoann Barbet's controversial red card after only five minutes.

The Owls established a 3-0 lead at half time the goals from Fernando Forestieri, Keiren Westwood and Kieran Lee, before Brentford's misery was complete by Lucas Joao in the second half.

But despite being down to 10-men for 85 minutes, Smith felt his team's defending left a lot to be desired.

"The defending for the goals was inexcusable," he said.

"We are conceding too many goals where they don’t have to work hard for them.

"They took a goal kick, ran through and scored - you don’t see that happening in our Youth Team.

"It is very disappointing and something that we have to work on."

He added: "There is only one way to go and that is hard work on the training pitch," he said.

"You take your wins, your draws and your defeats on the chin.

"We walk into the training ground on Monday and we have to get back to what we are good at."

Smith had elected to ring the changes, with Phillip Hofmann, Konstantin Kerschbamer, Nico Yennaris and Sergi Canos all promoted to the starting line up following the disappointing loss at Brighton last week.

The Bees started brightly, with Hofmann involved in some neat interplay on the edge of Wednesday's box, which resulted in Alan Judge firing across goal.

Yet the pivotal moment came when Gary Hooper raced clear through the middle and Barbet appeared to make just enough contact to bring down the striker on the edge of the box.

From the resulting free kick, David Button produced a sharp save to push Ross Wallace's free kick away to his left for a corner.

The home side were ahead after only twelve minutes when Daniel Pudil crossed from the left and a looping header from Forestieri found the back of the net.

After Brentford won a corner on the left, Wednesday were lazy in their efforts to clear and Canos saw a low shot palmed away by Westwood.

Hooper doubled the Owls lead on the half hour match, allowing Westwood's long clearance to bounce once before hitting a fine half volley past Button from the edge of the box.

The Owls made it three just before half time when Hooper headed the ball down in the six yard box and Lee got the better of Button to fire home a horribly scrappy goal from Brentford's point of view.

Brentford could have pulled one back early in the second half when Maxime Colin's cross from the right was headed weakly over the bar by Yennaris.

Judge was working tirelessly to try and drag his side back into it. After combining with Bidwell on the left, his low shot was palmed way by Westwood.

Wednesday almost added a fourth when they broke down the left and a last ditch effort from Bidwell saw him put the ball over the bar for a corner.

The home side weren't to be denied and a powerful shot from substitute Joao whipped a fierce strike past Button at his near post from inside the box.

Brentford: Button; Colin, Dean, Barbet, Bidwell; Yennaris (sub McEachran 82), Kerschbaumer (sub O'Connell 7), Woods, Judge, Canos (sub Saunders h/t); Hofmann.

Subs (not used): Bonham, Vibe, MacLeod, Swift.