Brentford defender Karleigh Osborne took a big step towards saving his Griffin Park career in Saturday’s 3-0 triumph over Huddersfield Town.

The 22-year-old helped the Bees keep a third cleansheet in his five starts since a training ground bust-up with boss Andy Scott ahead of last month’s 1-0 win at Stockport County.

Osborne, in the final year of his contract, had appeared to be on his way out of the club having mustered just 11 appearances for the Bees this season before that triumph at Edgeley Park.

He was dropped to the bench for wins against Leyton Orient and Oldham Athletic, but has impressed since then keeping former Bees favourite Jordan Rhodes quiet at the weekend.

And Scott admits he it is up to him to keep performing if he wants to prove he can cut it in League One and earn a new deal.

“If Karleigh does it ‘til the end of the season then he has proved that he can play consistently well every week,” he said.

“It is a tough ask to go from right back to centre half against good players. Jordan Rhodes and Theo Robinson have scored a lot of goals this season.

“He is getting on with his job and was probably the latest in a long line of players to get a ‘kick up the backside’.

“If he gets the job done I’ll keep kicking him up the backside, and if he is getting the results and putting in the performances I’m sure he doesn’t mind me doing it.

“You need to find out what gets people going and gets the best out of them. If that is a row and a tear-up every now and again, then so be it.”

A brace from Charlie MacDonald and a fine strike from on-loan Lewis Grabban secured a comfortable win over the Terriers, and left Scott purring over the quality of his 16-goal leading scorer.

“We spoke to him earlier about his contract. I think he was on about 8 or 9 goals at the time and we said to him you need to score more goals in League One to be a commodity,” he said.

“Since then he has gone and scored the goals and we’ve given him a better contract, so fair play to him.

“It is not only his goals, his whole contribution to the side is incredible. He may be a little lad, but he wins a lot of headers, holds the ball up and is strong. He is sharp and the whole team appreciate what he does.”