Thomas Frank insists his Brentford side will keep fighting until the end of the Sky Bet Championship season, after a crushing 5-0 win at Preston that boosted their slim hopes of sneaking into the automatic promotion places. 

The Bees ended a run of four straight draws in emphatic style at Deepdale, with Bryan Mbeumo, Marcus Forss, Ivan Toney, Sergi Canos and Emiliano Marcondes strikes lifting them back above Swansea - who had earlier beaten Millwall - in the table. 

With six games left to play third-placed Brentford are nine points behind Watford in second, but the Hornets have played one game more and know they can ill-afford any slip-ups despite their healthy advantage. 

Although it seems Brentford’s Premier League hopes may rest on a successful play-offs campaign for the second successive season, Frank is confident his charges’ attitude and mind-set won’t slip. 

“Whether we can catch Watford is just up to us to keep performing like we have done today,” said the Dane. 

“We’re creating chances, and of course we’re very dangerous going forward. 

“It’s all about us to keep performing and we’ll see where that takes us, but it is for Watford to lose though now. 

“There’s no mind games between us or anything like that, but they’re in sync right now and it’s going to be difficult to catch them. 

“We’ll just do what we can in these last six games.”

Mbeumo’s ninth-minute goal set the tone for a comfortable afternoon in Lancashire, and the west Londoners stretched their 2-0 half-time lead thanks to three goals in the last 15 minutes. 

Next up Brentford face a fierce battle against local rivals Millwall before a home clash against Cardiff three days later, and Frank is hopeful his team can build on their latest showing in the final weeks ahead. 

He added: “Right from the off we played some really good football, we scored two good goals in the first half, and they gave us a great platform. 

“We had to defend well of course, but we’re always capable of doing that, and after we got our third goal we were in control. 

“In recent weeks we have been lacking a really top performance , but I definitely thought we got that today.”