WE’VE crashed back down to earth.

Brentford brutally ended our eight-game unbeaten run at Griffin Park on Tuesday night. Before that was a decent 1-0 win at home to Huddersfield on Saturday.

Dutch winger Roy Beerens’ first league goal gave us three points against the Terriers as for once it was the opposition receiving a red card.

We looked the better side against David Wagner’s men, more often than not on the front foot.

However, Huddersfield stayed resilient and Jaap Stam noted afterwards that it was ‘a hard, very tough game’.

Against Brentford we had the far superior possession, with 63% to their 37%.

Yet it’s what you do with the ball when you have it that counts.

We looked lacklustre and maybe a little complacent after our eight-game unbeaten run.

We weren’t clinical enough with only four of 16 shots on target.

George Evans did head against the post, but Brentford opened the scoring soon after through Josh Clark and added further goals from Lasse Vibe, Maxime Colin and Scott Hogan, after Yann Kermorgant’s coolly-struck penalty had brought it back to 3-1.

However, the Bees rarely looked troubled for most of the night.

On a positive note, Beerens looked threatening and Joey Van den Berg appears to be a real solid midfielder.

It was also good to see youngster Dominic Samuel given a run-out towards the end of the second half.

Our first defeat since the same 4-1 scoreline away to Newcastle in August sees us slip to eighth in the Championship before the visit of Derby County this Saturday.

Rams boss Nigel Pearson seems to be on his way out of the club as he was suspended shortly before their match at Cardiff City on Tuesday night, which they won 2-0.

The decision was taken pending an investigation into the former Leicester boss’ conduct after an apparent training ground bust-up with the owner Mel Morris.

He will not be in the dugout when his side comes to the Madejski Stadium at the weekend. Pearson has won just one of his nine games while in charge of the Pride Park club.