Bees beat Fulham in derby to extend brilliant run
Brentford extended their unbeaten run to 12 games with a deserved derby victory.
Thomas Frank’s side clinched all three points against Fulham courtesy of an early breakthrough by Ethan Pinnock, a penalty by Ivan Toney shortly after half-time, with Mathias Jensen adding a third in the closing stages.
Manor Solomon had equalised earlier for the Whites – scoring for the fifth consecutive match – and Carlos Vinicius pulled a goal back in injury time, but Brentford did more than enough to merit their triumph.
The Bees remain ninth in the Premier League table, a point and two places behind Fulham, but with two games in hand.
Brentford started vigorously and Bryan Mbeumo missed two great chances, the first a close range effort agonisingly wide, before being denied by a smart save from Fulham keeper Bernd Leno.
However, the Bees took the lead inside six minutes. Defender Pinnock, supporting the attack, slotted home with a left-footed effort inside the Whites’ penalty area, via a fortuitous deflection off Tim Ream.
Fulham responded but failed to create any clear-cut chances, before Toney clipped the crossbar with a 20-yard free-kick with 35 minutes gone.
Yet Marco Silva’s men eventually levelled just four minutes later. Solomon, unmarked, was sufficiently alert to follow up and head home, via an expertly taken Andreas Pereira set piece which came off the Brentford bar.
In the 53rd minute, Brentford forged ahead again, winning a penalty when Issa Diop kicked Christian Norgaard. Toney subsequently slotted past Leno for his 15th league goal of the season. Moreover, with the Bees pushing for a third goal, Toney almost caught out Leno with an audacious shot from the centre circle.
With five minutes to go, substitute Kevin Schade set up a simple six-yard finish for Jensen.
Fulham substitute Vinicius turned the ball in when keeper David Raya spilled a Pereira shot.
Brentford: Raya, Hickey (Roerslev 90), Henry, Mee, Pinnock, Norgaard, Jensen, Wissa (Schade , Atoney, Mbeumo (Dasilva 90), Damsgaard (Janelt 75)
Fulham: Leno, Tete (Soares 82), Robinson, Ream, Diop, Reed, Pereira, Willian (Vinicius 82), Lukic (Decordova-Reid 75), Mitrovic, Solomon (Wilson 75)
