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Nathan Collins felt he and his Brentford team-mates did not "justify" their starts after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in a 3-2 loss to Sunderland.

It was a first appearance since 5 September for the Republic of Ireland captain, who limped off with a calf strain when the same sides played out a 1-1 Premier League draw.

Collins was happy to make his return, but predominately disappointed by the three goals conceded.

He told club media: "(I'm) frustrated. Annoyed. Felt like we were in a good place to do something well in the cup this year, and that performance just let us down.

"We created our own problems. I don’t think we defended well enough for three goals. Definitely created enough chances to go and win a game, but we only have ourselves to blame for what we conceded.

"I think tonight was a chance for players and for myself to show why we should be playing, starting or playing, and today the starting 11 probably didn’t do enough to justify that."

Brentford boss Keith Andrews added: "I’m bitterly disappointed. We wanted to progress in this competition. We’ve taken it very, very seriously with how we’ve approached it.

"The reality is we’ve had a period where we conceded three goals, that’s cost us with poor defending, poor mistakes, poor judgement and we need to learn from them."