Thomas Frank focused on the positives following Brentford’s FA Cup third-round defeat to West Ham United.

A match of little goalmouth action was decided by a moment of brilliance from Said Benrahma with 11 minutes to play; his 20-yard effort arching in over Thomas Strakosha.

But Frank was pleased with his side’s performance, as well as the return of defender Kristoffer Ajer.

“I hate losing,” said Frank, “I’m disappointed with that.

“I’m positive about the performance, I would say. I think we put a real fine performance out there. We controlled and we were on top for more or less 90 minutes.

“We gave one chance away to [Tomas] Soucek, and then the goal, where I think we could have done a little bit better – it was a shot from 23/24 yards during a half-transition against us – but besides that I think we were in control.

“We dominated the game and we created chances. It was a tight, narrow game, but I thought if there was a winner it should have been us.”

Frank continued: “Unfortunately we didn’t have that final, quality decisiveness and all margins with us to score the first goal.

“Before their goal, we had more. That final action – that pass or cross – could have given us more.

“Overall, I’m pleased, but sometimes with these games at this level it’s one action that decides the game.”

Frank highlighted Kristoffer Ajer’s impact; the defender played 80 minutes on his return to first-team action.

“It was very, very good to see Kristoffer out there,” said Frank. “I’m pleased with his performance. It looked like he hadn’t been away, so I was pleased with that.”

New signing Kevin Schade was introduced as a second-half substitute and Frank took encouragement from his first outing in a Brentford shirt.

“That was positive,” Frank responded when asked about Schade’s burst past Craig Dawson that led to a yellow card for the West Ham defender.

“I saw some of his pace there and his directness. He was in and around when the ball dropped. He was in there for the second ball and the duels. I liked that.”

The Brentford head coach stressed the need for focus with Bournemouth the visitors to the Gtech Community Stadium next Saturday.

“We’re in a good run of form in the Premier League and we want to continue that,” he concluded.

“Against Bournemouth it’s going to be very difficult. We need to hit a top performance and I’ll be on the players from Monday morning.

“We need to train like animals the whole week to keep the intensity up and come out flying on Saturday.”