Brentford midielder Stuart Dallas did his growing reputation no harm in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Watford and his performance was not lost on manager Mark Warburton.

The 23-year-old covered all blades of grass at Griffin Park – in the wake of Jake Bidwell’s dramatic sending off – with a display that will undoubtedly have caught the attention of Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill.

The Bees are blessed with midfielder talent at present with Alex Pritchard, Jota, Jon Toral and Jonathan Douglas having all impressed.

Alan McCormack, who can play in the middle or at full back, is approaching full fitness, but it is Dallas who has impressed his boss most in recent weeks.

“Stuart Dallas is such a flexible player,” said Warburton.

“His work rate is outstanding.

“His defensive and offensive awareness is way beyond his years and he did a great job for us on Tuesday.”

Toral produced a telling cameo on Saturday as he came off the bench to combine with Toumani Diagouraga to set up Pritchard’s winner at Leeds United.

The 20-year-old Arsenal loanee has not started a league match for the Bees since a 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town in December and has made 14 of his 20 appearances this term off the bench.

The former Barcelona youngster hit a post as he twice came close to doubling his side's advantage in an 32 minutes as a second half replacement for Jota.

“Jon had a run of five games earlier in the season and is a really talented boy,” said his manager.

“When he first came to us, we had to work on his awareness off the ball.

“But he has done a fantastic job and he is probably one of the boys most aggrieved not to be starting recently.”