PRESSURE continues to build on Leeds United boss Thomas Christiansen after their 3-1 defeat at Brentford.

It was their seventh Championship loss of the season and sees them drop to tenth in the table – three points outside the play-off positions and ten behind the top two.

Christiansen believes his side should have got something from the Griffin Park clash rather than travel home empty handed.

He said: "This was a must win but we didn't, but we had a very good second half and I believe we deserved more.

"The pressure will grow and grow if we don't win but there is only one way to come out of it and that's to stick together."

He added: "We were late in several situations and Brentford are a good team that plays fast, but we need to learn from that.

"We made two changes at half-time and I will take with me the positive that we raised our game, equalised and could have got the win."

Three goalkeeping blunders littered the game, with Leeds' Andy Lonergan at fault for two of the Bees goals.

Christiansen said: "They approached our goal four times and scored three goals.

"Mistakes we can all commit but today they cost us the game. When people make individual mistakes there is no system that can support that.

"It's disappointing when you think you deserve more, but there is only one thing to do and that is to continue working hard.

"If we don't have faith and don't believe we may as well throw everything away and go home. But we are fighters and we will fight back again."

Lonergan gifted the hosts the lead midway through the first half when he dropped Barbet's cross from the left onto the head of Neal Maupay, who gratefully nodded into the empty goal.

But Daniel Bentley let the visitors back into it with an almost carbon copy blunder when he lost a high ball in the air and dropped it into the path of Ezgjan Alioski, who nodded home from almost the same spot.

The Londoners regained the lead with five minutes remaining when Barbet's low angled free-kick found its way past the hapless Lonergan.

And they gave the scoreline a more realistic feel when Kamohelo Mokotjo fed Ryan Woods on the edge of the box for the Bees midfielder to give Lonergan no chance with a sidefooted piledriver.

Brentford could have made life easier for themselves minutes before the break when Pontus Jansson slid in late on Maupay in the box and referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot.

But in-form winger Ollie Watkins stepped up to take the spot-kick and blazed over, to the relief of the Leeds fans behind the goal - who threw debris onto the pitch as the kick was taken.

Brentford twice hit the top of the woodwork, with Watkins and Nico Yennaris seeing long-range efforts flash to safety as the Leeds defence stood off.

After the break United came into it more, dominating possession in midfield for a 20-minute spell. Ronaldo Vieira's curling drive from range forced a good save from Bentley while substitute Kemar Roofe gave the Bees defence a torrid 25 minutes.

But in the end it was Woods' late strike that sealed the points and left Leeds still searching for their first win at Griffin Park since 1950.