Brentford fell to a 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Wednesday night.

Mikkel Damsgaard netted early in a much-improved second period for the Bees, but first-half goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash saw the hosts claim the spoils.

Thomas Frank made two changes to the side that defeated Leicester City 4-1 four days earlier, with Mathias Jensen and Christian Nørgaard both missing out through minor injuries.

Yehor Yarmoliuk was awarded his second Premier League start of the season and Vitaly Janelt moved into the starting XI, with Jayden Meghoma and Ryan Trevitt being named on the bench.

Kevin Schade, fresh from his hat-trick and assist in the victory over the Foxes, had the first sight of goal with just over five minutes played. After Janelt stole possession from Boubacar Kamara, the German’s effort from the edge of the area was deflected narrowly wide of the bottom corner.

Villa responded with a couple of openings of their own, with Lucas Digne’s teasing cross being just out of the reach of John McGinn at the back post, before Mark Flekken collected a side-footed shot from former Bee Watkins.

The hosts moved in front on 21 minutes. After countering at pace, Rogers curled into the top corner of Flekken’s goal from just outside the box.

Flekken was brought into action again shortly afterwards as the Bees keeper made a smart stop from Leon Bailey’s right-footed drive, before Rogers blazed the rebound high and wide.

Villa were awarded a golden opportunity to double their lead midway through the half as Ethan Pinnock was adjudged to have brought Watkins down inside the penalty area, with the centre-back also being booked for the foul. Watkins picked himself up to net from the spot, with his penalty squeezing under the hand of an outstretched Flekken down to his left.

And it was 3-0 on 34 minutes. Pinnock got an important flicked header on Rogers’ dinked cross from the left, but Cash was well-placed to volley in at the back post.

Schade met an in-swinging Damsgaard corner as Frank’s side looked for a way back into the game but his header flew over.

Watkins was denied a second late in the half, with Flekken tipping his rising effort over the frame.

McGinn skewed a near-post volley wide as the first opening of the second half went the way of the hosts, before Flekken scampered across his goal to palm away a Watkins header from the bottom corner moments later.

Damsgaard pulled one back for the Bees just under 10 minutes after the restart.

A superb Pinnock challenge regained possession in the middle of the park, with the ball then being worked right to Bryan Mbeumo. His dangerous cross, aimed for Schade, was headed away by Cash but only as far as Damsgaard, who cut inside from the byline and skipped past a defender before firing into the roof of the net from close range.

Three minutes later, a loose backpass put Watkins in on goal at the other end, but Flekken blocked the striker’s low shot with his legs.

Paris Maghoma was introduced midway through the second half for his Brentford debut.

Another second-half substitute, Igor Thiago, had a great opportunity to reduce the deficit to one moments after coming on but, having been slid in behind the defence by Mbeumo, the Brazilian blasted over the crossbar.

With Brentford continuing to push for a way back into the game, Villa looked to kill it off at the other end as Flekken made another strong save to deny Jhon Durán.

Tyrone Mings made an important block as the final 10 minutes neared, deflecting Fábio Carvalho’s piledriver behind for a corner.

Flekken palmed away a well-struck Durán effort from inside the box with five minutes remaining, but it mattered little as Villa held out to claim the three points.

Aston Villa: Martínez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; Kamara (Barkley 71), Tielemans; Bailey (Philogene 65), McGinn (Maatsen 87), Rogers (Buendía 87); Watkins (Duran 65),

Subs not used: Olsen, Carlos, Buendía, Pau, Bogarde

Brentford: Flekken; van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter (Roerslev 80); Yarmoliuk (Maghoma 64), Janelt, Damsgaard; Schade (Carvalho 71), Wissa (Thiago 71), Mbeumo

Subs not used: Valdimarsson, Mee, Meghoma, Konak, Trevitt

Frank: We didn't hit our highest level

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank gave his assessment of the Bees' 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Wednesday night.

“We didn’t hit our highest level today," he said.

“We faced a very good Aston Villa team; you could see the difference between the two teams today, as to why they’re playing Champions League football and we’re not, unfortunately.

“I know we are better than what we showed today, that’s the frustrating part. But we faced a team who hit a high level.

“They got the first goal - a top action from [Morgan] Rogers, what a player, by the way - and then, of course, the penalty, which I’m really doubting is a penalty. But we didn’t lose because of that, they were just better than us over 90 minutes.

“We didn’t stop the transitions well enough and we lost the ball in certain situations.

“The positive was that we were better in the second half, but we weren’t really close to getting anything out of the game.”

Damsgaard: We made it hard for ourselves

Goalscorer Mikkel Damsgaard admitted that the Bees gave themselves too much to do in the second half at Villa Park.

“It was a tough first half," said the Danish midfielder. "We played okay on the ball but they killed us on the counters. We need to be quicker to react, sprint back and stop the counters - maybe we have to make a foul sometimes.

“A lot of players were talking at half-time saying we needed to be better and that, even though it was going to be a hard second half, we had to express ourselves and I think we did that.

"I think we were better in the second half but it’s difficult to come back from 3-0 down.

“I hoped that my goal could start something but it didn’t. We tried to play offensive in the second half but we made it hard for ourselves with the first half."