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Goals in either half from Igor Jesus and Taiwo Awoniyi saw Nottingham Forest restore their five-point gap above resurgent West Ham and the Premier League relegation zone with a potentially vital 2-0 win at Brentford.
Sean Dyche joins Pep Guardiola as just the second visiting manager to win at the Gtech Community Stadium this season with a victory underpinned by his side’s defensive showing following Jesus’ early opener, with Awoniyi securing the points on the break 10 minutes from time.
In the battle of two Brazilian Igors in attack, it was the unfancied Jesus who won the day with his first league goal since December 3, his superb chest and finish after 12 minutes acting as a catalyst for Forest who could easily have gone on to double their advantage in a dominant opening half hour.
Igor Jesus celebrates after opening the scoring for Nottingham Forest at Brentford
Once their momentum faded, Brentford had a number of chances to level, with Dango Ouattara – an early substitute for the injured Mikkel Damsgaard – denied by Matz Sels when he should have equalised.
Sepp van den Berg, another first-half introduction after Kristoffer Ajer was forced off, almost levelled on the stroke of half-time from a long throw but nodded down and just wide of the near post.
Forest dropped further and further back as Brentford’s mounting pressure continued after half-time but, as chances failed to materialise, the hosts’ belief visibly seeped away as time began to run out to continue their fine home form.
Instead, Forest punished them in clinical fashion as substitute Awoniyi turned their only touch in the opposition box of the second half into a second goal 10 minutes from time after outpacing Van den Berg on the break.
Taiwo Awoniyi celebrates after doubling Nottingham Forest’s lead
On a day which began with the Bees holding hope of cementing their European push, they instead remain outside the top seven and will drop to ninth if Everton beat Leeds on Monday Night Football.
Analysis: Not pretty – but fully deserved
Sky Sports’ Ron Walker at the Gtech Community Stadium:
“As Rob Green put it, Nottingham Forest were unspectacular but effective. At the moment, that will do with West Ham breathing down their necks and the relegation zone looming all too large.
“A stunning pair of performances from Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic, who seemed to find themselves on the end of every one of Brentford’s 35 crosses into the box, underpinned a victory which owed everything to hard work and two moments of quality when it really mattered.
“The timing of those goals, book-ending the game as they did, could not have been much better and showed up a Brentford attack which laboured but had few ideas to combat the visitors’ low block.
“In defence of Keith Andrews, his cause was not aided by the loss of creative lynchpin Damsgaard before half-time, but even without him the hosts ran out of ideas long before full-time.
“Ultimately, though the manner of Forest’s victory was far from pretty Andrews can have few complaints on a day when Sels had one save to make across 90 minutes.”
Story of the match in stats…
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