Thomas Frank praised Colchester after they pushed Brentford all the way before the Premier League side sealed a 2-0 win to progress to the Carabao Cup third round.

The Bees took a 39th-minute lead when Keane Lewis-Potter finished calmly from close range, after being found by Shandon Baptiste in the area.

The visitors sealed victory in the first minute of stoppage time when Ivan Toney’s header from Saman Ghoddos’ corner struck Mads Bech Sorensen and flew in.

Bees boss Frank, who made 11 changes, said: “It was very hard, no doubt about that.

“Even though we changed a lot of players,...