John Still was anything but. He mimed crunching tackles and diving headers, jabbed fingers and jabbered at his players, who had surrounded him in a tight circle for a postmatch debriefing on the pitch moments after the final whistle.

Still’s Dagenham & Redbridge had relinquished top spot in Coca-Cola League Two and lost for the first time this season, avoidably. The manager rammed home that mistakes had been made and urged his players that they can and must improve. He arrived for his press conference 20 minutes later looking content and relaxed. “We haven’t made too many errors but they capitalised,” he said. “You look back at the end of the season at how many mistakes you’ve made and that might tell you why you are where you are in the league.”

The first blunder was allowing Nathan Elder a free header midway through the first half. Ten minutes later, Charlie MacDonald ran through to double the lead. Five minutes into the second half, Sam Saunders offered a fine riposte, turning and shooting low from the edge of the area, but the visiting team did not quite have enough to equalise, even when Brentford were down to ten men in the last 13 minutes after Kevin O’Connor had been dismissed.

Brentford (4-4-2): B Hamer – A Newton, J Wilson, A Bennett, B Johnson – M Williams, M Bean, C Pead (sub: K O’Connor, 64min), G Poole – C MacDonald (sub: F Artus, 78), N Elder. Substitutes not used: S Brown, M Phillips, M Ademola. Booked: Newton. Sent off: O’Connor.

Dagenham & Redbridge (4-4-2): T Roberts – M Okuonghae (sub: G Southam, 79), A Uddin, M Arber, S Griffiths – S Saunders, S Taiwo, P Gain, J Nurse (sub: R Graham, 67) – B Strevens (sub: M Nwokeji, 84), P Benson. Substitutes not used: E Thompson, J Boardman.

Referee: R East. Attendance: 4,519.