Amine Linganzi returned to the Gills team for the first time in almost three months on Friday night.

A hamstring injury had left the Frenchman sidelined since early November.

He came into the side at the expense of youngster Jake Hessenthaler.

Boss Peter Taylor explained the switch. He said: “Amine has played a couple of development games and he’s looked fit and his hamstring has been strong.

“He beats people and that’s why I wanted him in the team. Jake has done magnificent but I was never going to rely on Jake for every game until the end of the season.

“Jake will be a good player for us, there is no doubt about that but I just felt that Amine was a little fresher and the way he beats people at times could have caused Brentford problems.”

Taylor’s other change saw Craig Fagan replace Adebayo Akinfenwa upfront.

He said: “He did some good things. At the end I wanted to go with a front three, otherwise I would have kept Craig on. He was doing fine.”

Taylor also felt that Akinfenwa would offer more coming off the bench.

Taylor said: “I explained my thinking on that to Bayo the day before the game.

“There are times when he can come off the bench and have 35 minutes where he is fresh and the defenders are tired. Sometimes you see his strength even more.

“Sometimes he starts the game, he works so hard then he gets a bit tired and then you don’t see the best of him. That’s why at times we don’t start him.”