Brentford boss Andy Scott says plans to bring in a new striker for the League One run-in will be put on hold until he has sorted his defensive crisis.

Returning centre-back Alan Bennett had 45 minutes to forget as the Bees crashed 3-0 at Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday and he received his marching orders for two bookable offences.

The 28-year-old Irishman will be suspended for the weekend trip to Stockport County, while Mark Phillips and Leon Legge are both struggling with injuries.

Scott has already sounded out Ipswich Town over the possiblity of Tommy Smith returning after Damien Delany saw his red card overturned, but has so far had little joy.

The Bees chief had hoped to bring in extra fire power to ease the pressure on Charlie MacDonald, Ben Strevens and Carl Cort during a busy March, yet he admits he now has other fires to fight.

“We’ve spoken to Ipswich, but it doesn’t look like things are going to change too much,” he said.

“We are seeing how Leon and Mark shape up and monitoring them on a daily basis. We have not ruled them out coming back.

“It is fair to say that we are working hard on bringing in an extra defender and for the moment we are not thinking about a striker, as they are proving difficult to come by at this stage of the season.”