Smith hails duo after Bees victory

Dean Smith feels his free-scoring forwards have proved Brentford are coping just fine since they sold Scott Hogan to Aston Villa.

Lasse Vibe’s brace against Derby took him ahead of Hogan – who departed Griffin Park in January – with a total of 15 goals for the season.

And Jota, who also netted twice in the Bees’ 4-0 victory at Griffin Park, has now found the net 10 times since his return from a loan spell with Eibar at the start of the year.

Boss Smith said: “With Jota and Lasse, who are in really good form, we’re getting goals from everywhere. Scotty’s a top player, we know that – but we think Lasse is as well.

“He was unfortunate because Scotty was on fire in the first half of the year, but he’s shown what a good finisher he is – and he’ll probably be annoyed he didn’t get a hat-trick with another one when Rico (Henry) set him up.

“Jota coming off the right-hand side is always a threat against anyone. I was pleased when the second goal went in, I thought that was game over.

“It was a very Good Friday – a good performance and a good result, possibly one of the best I’ve had since I’ve been in charge because of the calibre of the opposition and the form they were in.”

Vibe opened the scoring with a close-range finish on the half-hour but, although Brentford were in dominant form, they had to wait until the last 20 minutes to wrap up the points.

Two eye-catching strikes from Jota sandwiched Vibe’s second of the game, a drive from just outside the penalty area, as the Bees sealed their third successive home win.

“The first half was exceptional,” Smith added. “Defensively our structure was really good – they couldn’t play through us, so they had to go around us and we coped with what they had.

“Derby are a good team with good players and I reminded the players at half-time they’d had the one chance, we didn’t need them to have any more.

“I put them under a bit of pressure, which I don’t think the lads were expecting. I told them that if anyone under-performed, they’d get dragged straight away because we knew Derby would come at us.”