Paul Trollope hailed a "fantastic" debut display from striker Chris Dickson as the on-loan marksman scored the first two goals and helped make the other in Bristol Rovers' 3-1 weekend win at Brentford.

The result – the Pirates' third victory on the trot and their sixth in eight League One outings – represents their best start to a season for 25 years and kept them third in the table.

And boss Trollope believes Dickson – whose heroics were cut short when both of his legs cramped up after an hour – can prove even more of a handful when he gains full match fitness after a shortage of action at Charlton over the opening weeks of the campaign.

"We thought we could expose a few areas in Brentford's defence and we did that. Chris was fantastic on his debut for us," said Trollope.

"We know if we can get the ball down the side of centre-halves then he has the pace and power to cause problems – and he can finish.

"His goalscoring record has been decent – especially when he went to Gillingham a couple of years ago – and we are pleased he has got off to a flying start.

"He had not played for a while and we said to him at half-time that he had to be honest with us and put his hand up if he needed to come off.

"I think the signs were obvious because he cramped up in the calves, but by then he had done the damage for us.

"We hope he can get even better. He knows Jo Kuffour already but if we can get them working a bit closer together, then hopefully then can forge a partnership for us."

Dickson, who only met his new team-mates for the first time on Thursday, struck twice in the opening half-hour to put the visitors in command and then helped set up the third for Aaron Lescott in a flowing move.

"The third one was a great goal," acknowledged Trollope. "We'd looked at ways we thought we could hurt Brentford and that goal worked almost identically to what we had been doing on the training ground on Thursday.

"We were delighted with the result because it's a difficult place to come.

"Andy Scott has done a fantastic job at Brentford and we knew we would be in for an examination, which we got in the second half after we'd enjoyed a very good opening period.

"There are still things we need to improve on. We have the firepower to get into leads but we need to be able to retain possession better to ease the pressure on our back four.

"But there was some fantastic defending when we needed it and it took a fantastic strike by them to undo us.

"We are only eight games into the season and we still have a lot of the so-called bigger clubs in the division to come. But we have shown the ability in this period to grind out results, which hasn't always been the case.

"I think the hallmark of any team near the top of the table is the ability to win when you are not at your flowing best.

"We weren't at our best on Saturday by any stretch of the imagination, but we were resilient in defence and devastating on the break and we seem to have the knack of grinding things out at the moment.

"When we can add the things we need to do and pass the ball better, we can only improve."

Brentford boss Scott felt Bristol Rovers keeper Mikkel Andersen should have been red-carded early in the second half after bringing down Steve Kabba, but Trollope backed the referee's decision to brandish a yellow.

"From where I was, we had two defenders ahead of their striker who would have got the ball, so I think it was a correct decision by the referee."

Bristol Rovers will now prepare for Saturday's home game against Brighton as they look to bank their fifth successive win at the Memorial Stadium in league and cup outings.