Brentford deepened Nottingham Forest’s relegation worries with a 2-1 home win after Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva scored late second-half goals to leave the visitors a point above the drop zone.
The result leaves Forest in 17th with 30 points, above Leicester City in 18th and 19th-placed Everton (28 points) who play each other on Monday. Brentford is ninth with 50 points.
With the score tied at 1-1, Dasilva settled the contest in the 93rd minute with a shot from a tight angle to seal the three points and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for Europe alive.
“The ball came out to me and I just took my man on. Great feeling to score,” Dasilva said.
“It’s possible mathematically (to qualify for Europe) but we are obviously relying on other teams to lose which we can’t control.”
It was Brentford who applied the early pressure as Forest keeper Keylor Navas and his defensive line stood firm to deny the home side who struggled in the final third in the first half.
Forest were under the cosh but midfielder Danilo scored for the visitors with the last kick of the half from six yards out after latching on to a heavily deflected shot from Morgan Gibbs-White.
Toney was barely involved in the first half but Brentford slowly improved after the restart. But it was not until Thomas Frank switched tactics that they really threatened to score.
Desperately needing a goal, Frank switched to a back three and brought on Yoane Wissa and Dasilva as wing backs.
“Thomas Frank just said to keep the width and make it hard for them. They were hard to break down, so we got it in the wide areas where our strengths are,” Dasilva added.
After knocking on the door for most of the second half, Brentford’s equaliser finally came in the 82nd minute.
Toney curled his free kick through a gap in the wall and beat Navas as the ball went in off the post for the English striker’s 20th league goal.
As Forest boss Steve Cooper looked on nervously, Dasilva took matters into his own hands with a solo effort where he first beat his marker before firing a shot that Navas was unable to keep out.
There was a nervous wait for both sides as VAR checked to see if Wissa was onside and not interfering with play before the referee pointed to the centre circle and Brentford celebrated just their second win in eight games.
“We didn’t play our best. Sometimes you have to find a way to win and we did it ugly today,” Toney said.
“I think Forest are a great side, dug in well and if they stick at it they give themselves a chance of staying in the league.”
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