That the Bees had one shot on target – that a heavily deflected Bryan Mbuemo effort – and scored twice rather summed up our recent fortunes. Fifteen attempts of ours amounted to nothing, despite a flurry of decent chances early in the second half, as the Blues yet again fired blanks. April has yielded one goal in seven games.

In his assessment of our latest defeat, Lampard was sympathetic towards his team’s plight, although he also acknowledged the fans’ frustration at the end of another disappointing day in SW6.

‘I feel for the players a bit because at the moment they are low on confidence,’ said Lampard.

‘Everyone is around 30 per cent lower on confidence. It’s not an application thing. You control the game, you create some chances, but when we get them, we are not taking them. We are lacking the belief when we get to the top end of the pitch.

‘Brentford are good at what they do. We dominated the second half, but they scored on a breakaway. The details of the game are pretty clear.

‘I just told the players it is not a sob story that everything is going against us, but I can’t talk about any application things about the squad. They are trying everything, they are really disappointed in the dressing room and the fans should have no doubt about that.

‘I have no problem with fans booing,’ added Lampard.

‘I am not sitting here to go against the fans and say don’t boo the players. Absolutely not. But I will defend the players because they are young lads who want to do well. Is there an issue with confidence? Yeah. Is there an issue with the balance of the squad? Yeah.

‘If you think Brentford are going to come and turn you around and have corners and throw-ins, and you’re going to walk that game, it’s not the case any time. And when you’re in a moment of a lack of confidence, it’s difficult to win any game.

‘I’m not exonerating the players, but I am supporting them. They performed in my opinion like they wanted to win it.’

Lampard changed formation at half-time and made two subs, one of which was the introduction of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who looked lively

‘Auba comes on and has a couple of moments. He hasn’t played so many minutes. Maybe a fresh Auba scores those goals.

‘Auba has been a tough one for me. I have complete respect for him as a player. He’s scored 300 goals in his career. He couldn’t play the two Madrid games for me because he’s not in the squad. He came on against Wolves.

‘For a number nine particularly to be sharp playing regularly is key. He was in my thinking for today anyway. He certainly has the profile of a number nine, which we don’t have elsewhere in the squad, so I did see a difference when he came on.’

Lampard recognised our current struggles and underlined the desire to change things

‘This club has been through many good moments, but at the moment it is tough. We would love a magic wand, it does not come in football or the Premier League. We will have to fight for our good moments and find balance going forward.

‘Some of the recruitment has been at younger players and you have to understand it will take time. Everyone is very short-term at this moment in football, so people might not see through it yet.

‘I am proud of the players giving good application. This club is used to winning a lot, but now those aims are not there, so we have to keep going.’