Mark Warburton insists doubts over his future as Brentford manager has not affected his team.
They suffered a second successive defeat since it was reported on Tuesday that Warburton could be replaced at the helm this summer, this time losing 3-0 at struggling Charlton.
Warburton said: “It would be too easy to say what has happened this week has impacted the group – there’s too much quality in there for that and as a group of staff we wouldn’t allow it to happen.
“The players are human, they see it and read papers and there appears to be lots of speculation. But it’s had no effect whatsoever. They’re a strong group.
“We have no excuses. We trained and prepared well, we were ready, and it was just a bad day at the office. We were slow to the ball, gave it away cheaply and made poor decisions in possession.”
Warburton stressed following Tuesday’s defeat against Watford that his team had not lost focus but the club’s owner Matthew Benham is yet to clarify the manager’s future despite a statement being expected at the end of the week.
Warburton insisted his job remains to take the team as far as it can go this season but he admits he is disappointed by what has happened.
“What’s disappointed me the most is that the story has deflected the attention away from the players,” he said.
“The upsetting thing was that the focus was taken on to other matters off the pitch, which is out of their control.
“People say this lot are punching above their weight, but they deserve to be where they are.”
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