A Ben Watson volley proved the difference between the sides as Brentford slipped to a narrow defeat at Nottingham Forest.
Forest’s captain pounced after the Bees failed to clear a corner ten minutes into the second half and fired the ball home from 12 yards to send his side second in the Championship.
A keenly contested first half saw Joe Lolley and Tiago Silva go close for Forest, while Josh Dasilva’s near-post shot and Bryan Mbeumo’s header proved Brentford’s best efforts.
After Forest went ahead in the second half the Bees made all three substitutions, but failed to trouble Brice Samba in the Forest goal and could not avoid a fifth league defeat of the season.
The hosts had started brightly, forcing Brentford onto the back foot as they pressed down the right flank and won a couple of corners.
After nicking the ball in the centre circle, Joe Lolley burst through the middle of the pitch, with David Raya clutching his shot from the edge of the box.
Dasilva had Brentford’s first shot on target, turning inside the box and nearly beating Samba at his near post.
Mbeumo also sent a looping header over the bar after Henrik Dalsgaard crossed from the right, while Mathias Jensen nearly put the Bees ahead on the stroke of half-time, when Samba did well to get a hand to his deflected 30-yard free-kick.
Reds striker Lewis Grabban came close to breaking the deadlock early in the second half, pouncing on a loose pass from Christian Norgaard before being denied by a fine Pontus Jansson tackle inside the box.
But after Brentford failed to clear the resulting corner, Watson’s fine volley from 12 yards put the home side ahead.
Mbeumo was inches away from equalising when his shot, following a corner, flew just over the bar.
Substitutes Said Benrahma and Nikolaos Karelis very nearly combined to get the Bees back on level terms with the winger’s cross just an inch too high for the Greek striker to connect with.
This post was last modified on 05/10/2019