Brentford’s Marcus Bean added the art of diplomacy to his armoury when he took on the captain’s armband at the weekend, according to boss Andy Scott.

The 25-year-old, already on nine bookings this season, deputised for injured-skipper Kevin O’Connor in Saturday’s 3-0 triumph over manager Lee Clark’s Huddersfield Town knowing another card would cost him a two-match suspension.

Scott named him as his on-field lieutenant in a bid to get in the man-in-the-middle’s good books and his ‘blue sky thinking’ helped keep Bean on the straight and narrow leaving him clear to play for the rest of the season.

“It was a little bit of a cheeky one. If Marcus got through without a yellow card then he can’t be suspended; if he’d got booked he would have missed two games, which we can’t really afford,” said the Griffin Park chief.

“We gave him the armband and the opportunity to talk to the referee, so there was a little bit of alternative thinking there.

“He got to talk to the referee in his room before the game and maybe he got a little bit more leeway than he sometimes does.”

And it also inspired the Bees engine room to one of its best performances of the season.

“Bean and Diagouraga were terrific in the middle of the park,” added Scott.

“Lee was shouting at his two in midfield that they had to do something, but they couldn’t.

“We had energy and were winning second balls and were passing it and winning every tackle and header, a completely dominant performance.”