Nottingham Forest vs Brentford. Sky Bet Championship.
The City GroundAttendance20,596.
Wednesday 11 April 2018 11:54, UK
Brentford kept their hopes of reaching the play-offs alive as Henrik Dalsgaard's strike gave them a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
The Bees now sit four points adrift of the play-off zone but Aitor Karanka's side have now failed to score in six consecutive Championship games.
It could have been different for the hosts though as Ben Brereton and Adlene Guedioura were both denied by the woodwork, while Daniel Bentley made big saves to twice deny Lee Tomlin and Joe Lolley.
While Forest paid the price for their lack of killer instinct, Dalsgaard showed his in the 81st minute, to head home the only goal of the game.
Forest did not look like a side lacking in confidence, during a first half they largely dominated.
Lolley cut in from the right and hit a left-foot shot that forced the first save from Bentley, in the opening moments.
The Brentford keeper was called into action again when Tomlin let fly from just outside the box and Ben Watson then sent a prodded effort spinning just wide.
The Bees did have a penalty claim turned down when Romaine Sawyers tumbled in the box after Tendayi Darikwa had chased him into the area and appeared to make contact from behind.
That was the visitors' most dangerous moment in the first period, with Brereton seeing a spectacular dipping effort beat Bentley, but not the woodwork, as it bounced away cruelly off the bar.
Guedioura was then denied by the upright, after a driving run from Tomlin had created chaos in the Brentford defence, only for the Algeria international's angled shot to skim the outside of the post.
Within two minutes of the restart, Brereton seemed to have broken clear of the Brentford defence, but hesitated in costly fashion, allowing them to recover and scramble clear.
There was no hesitation from Tomlin when he latched onto a ball from Darikwa and hammered a shot that Bentley conjured up another big save to keep out.
Brentford were starting to find their feet as well, with Sergi Canos stretching to prod a good chance wide, following a flowing counter. Neal Maupay also missed the target when he might have done better.
Forest had a penalty claim of their own turned down when Tomlin went down under pressure from John Egan.
But it was to be Brentford who were to make the breakthrough, as a cleverly worked corner saw Josh McEachran provide a perfect cross for Dalsgaard to head home.
Aitor Karanka: "If we play the same way on Saturday against Ipswich, we will get three points. Brentford are a good team and they are pushing for the play-offs. But today we were better than them; we had more chances than them.
"We lost the game. But we need to be positive and the one thing we can take from this is that they are a team pushing for the top six and we were better than them."
Dean Smith: "That's three 1-0 wins on the spin - and it shows a lot of character. Our game management was excellent. We're only four points from the top six, but there's some teams up there on unbelievable runs - including Fulham who we play on Saturday. All we can do it approach each game and try to win it.
"Fulham will be a mouth-watering game now, but we feel we're a good team now and we're five unbeaten."
