An Alan Judge double against his former employers helped Brentford return to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Notts County on Saturday

After taking just two points and failing to score during three trips up north in eight days, the Bees consolidated their position in the race for automatic promotion.

What threatened to be a long day for the visitors, struggling at the foot of the table, became even tougher for them when Haydn Hollis was shown a straight red card for bringing down Clayton Donaldson inside the box after half an hour.

Adam Forshaw calmly sent Bartosz Bialkowski the wrong way and rolled the ball into the bottom left hand corner from the spot.

It was a just reward for Brentford, who had looked lively during the opening spells, with Stuart Dallas impressing in a rare start alongside Donaldson.

During early chances he saw a shot deflected for a corner and then shot over from just outside the box.

Former Magpie Alan Judge was also central to many of the home side's attacks, yet showed the good grace to refrain from celebrating when he added both of Brentford's later goals.

In the minutes that followed the penalty, first Toumani Diagouraga shot wide left from 25 yards, before Judge shot wide after Dallas and Donaldson had combined to set him up.

Yet Judge made no mistake with a composed finish two minutes before the break, stroking the ball home from inside the box after Alan McCormack set him up.

Only seven minutes into the second half the Bees sealed the victory when Bialkowski made a great double save to twice deny Diagouraga, before Judge scored at the near post from five yards out.

A man short, the visitors forays forward were rare, yet substitute Jack Grealish looked lively, with a number of mazy runs keeping the Bees defence on its toes.

Notts County grabbed a late goal when a long ball forward bounced inside the box and Jimmy Spencer beat David Button to lob it over the keeper.

The Bees will look to build on the win when they welcome Crawley Town to Griffin Park on Tuesday night.

Brentford: Button, McCormack, Tarkowski (sub Dean 56), Craig, Bidwell; Douglas, Judge, Diagouraga, Forshaw (sub Saville 59); Donaldson (sub Grigg 70), Dallas