Brentford vs Fulham. Sky Bet Championship.
Griffin ParkAttendance12,052.
Saturday 5 November 2016 07:13, UK
Fulham earned the bragging rights in west London as they won 2-0 at Brentford in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday night.
Sone Aluko bagged the opener in the first half and Tom Cairney added a late second as Fulham deservedly beat their local rivals at Griffin Park.
The result lifts the Cottagers to seventh and the cusp of the play-off places ahead of the rest of the weekend's action, while Dean Smith's Brentford stay in 11th in the table.
Both sides named unchanged sides following wins last week, with Fulham thrashing Huddersfield 5-0 and Brentford winning 2-0 at fellow west London rivals QPR, but it was the away side who had by far the better of the first half.
Slavisa Jokanovic's side dominated virtually from the start, and only some poor finishing and a couple of great saves from Daniel Bentley prevented them from taking the lead sooner.
Eventually, though, they did find the breakthrough thanks to Aluko. The former Hull striker had been guilty of missing a few chances, but made up for it after 36 minutes as he poked home at the second time of asking after seeing his initial attempt from the edge of the area saved by Bentley.
Brentford improved dramatically after the break and finally tested David Button for the first time after 61 minutes. Josh Clarke, who had previously been quiet, finally came alive as the home side countered, charging into the box after a good move before seeing his effort tipped over by the Fulham goalkeeper.
And four minutes later, Clarke tested Button again, but Button was more than equal to it as he kept out the Brentford midfielder's effort from a narrow angle.
That was as close as Brentford would come to an equaliser, though, and in truth it was Fulham who saw out the rest of the game in relative comfort, eventually adding a second in stoppage time thanks to Cairney's cool finish after a swift counter-attack.
Brentford boss Dean Smith:
"We probably had too many five or six out of tens. Last week, we had more seven or eights and if you drop that much at this level, you get beat. I don't think we had to do a lot to be better in the second half as we weren't very good in the first half.
"They've got a number of good players in their team and they can always hurt you. I keep saying in this league the first goal is very important and when they got it they could afford to sit deep and hit us on the break."
Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic:
"We showed a very good performance and we showed our progress and in general I'm happy for the fans. It was a very good night for us.
"We played the first 45 minutes very well, we found it harder in the second half but then we got the second late on. Generally we have to be happy with this result."
