Brentford 2 Nottingham Forest 0 – Thiago strikes late as Bees end winless run

A Milenković own goal and a deflected Igor Thiago finish were enough to beat the Premier League’s lowest scorers, in a game that didn’t see a shot on target until the 76th minute

Brentford went into their 100th Premier League game at the Gtech sixth in the table, but without a win since beating Chelsea in September, and with a 3-2 Carabao Cup exit at Sunderland in midweek still fresh. Keith Andrews made one change from the Hull game, bringing back Vitaly Janelt after suspension, while Yehor Yarmoliuk served the last game of his ban.

Oliver Glasner’s Nottingham Forest arrived 18th with one win in eight, though they had done the double over Brentford last season, including a 2-0 win at the Gtech in January. Brentford were looking for a first win in over a month and Forest were looking for goals, and for much of the afternoon neither seemed much closer to finding them, but the home side’s quality showed in the end, and they’ll be relieved that that their start front man found himself back on the scoresheet.

Forest on top

Forest had the better of a competitive, physical opening in which neither side could hold the ball for long, and it was they who built the momentum. Liam Delap, a club-record signing for a reported fee of up to £50m, blasted a half volley over from close range on ten minutes.

Brentford’s best moment of the first 20 minutes came when Mathias Jensen, finally showing some incisiveness, slipped a ball through to Thiago, who rolled it wide on the angle with his weaker foot. Forest were straight back at them, and Delap was in again from a sharp James McAtee pass before Kristoffer Ajer recovered to make the challenge.

McAtee then should have scored. He was allowed to stroll to the edge of the Brentford box unchallenged, and his curling effort on the angle went just wide. Glasner will have been pretty happy with the way things were going.

Brentford, meanwhile, were sloppy and routinely gave the ball away.

Kelleher and Ouattara make the difference

Forest had done most of the attacking, so when Brentford went ahead on 30 minutes, it was against the run of play. A ball over the top from goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher was inch perfect, and Dango Ouattara skipped past Forest’s Murillo on the right before whipping in a low cross that deflected in off Nikola Milenković. Brentford were unlikely to dwell on whether they had earned it.

The goal seemed to relax them. The flicks and passes that had been off the mark started finding their targets, and Jensen came within inches of a second when his free kick, beautifully shaped but not dipping quite enough, hit the crossbar.

Forest had still been the better side over the half, and Glasner made two changes at the break. Daniel Muñoz, who carries a goal threat, replaced Ola Aina, and Ryan Yates came on for Xaver Schlager in the middle of the park.

A sleepy second half

Muñoz made an impact straight away, his cross causing a scramble in the Brentford box, and Kelleher got to the loose ball just before Delap, taking a whack for his trouble. On 54 minutes Yates headed over from close range after a Morgan Gibbs-White cross, and Forest perhaps should have been level.

After that it went flat. The stadium was quiet and Forest were struggling to create anything clear, but Brentford have had a nasty habit of cruising slightly after taking the lead, only to be caught by a moment of opposition brilliance or their own complacency. With the second half drifting by almost ambiently, there was a creeping anxiety around the Gtech that they might sleepwalk into more dropped points.

Thiago finds the net

The moment that finally settled the game came on 76 minutes. Anthony, who had come on for Ouattara four minutes earlier, took Hickey’s pass and found Thiago perfectly. The striker’s effort took a deflection off a desperate Forest defender, hit the underside of the crossbar and went in.

It was hardly a clean strike, but Thiago’s celebration made clear how much it meant to him. After scoring 22 league goals last season, this was only his second of the current campaign, but Bees faithful will be hoping that this could be early signs of a return to last terms prolific form.

Few players have more goodwill in the bank than last season’s star man, and it’s just the kind of scrappy goal that time old cliches will tell you a striker short of confidence needs, and on the day, it was more than enough to put the game beyond Forest.

Andrews had never lost faith. ‘I wasn’t concerned about Thiago in the slightest,’ he said. ‘In the last two or three weeks I saw a spark about him.’

For all the worry about Brentford holding a lead, Forest’s inability to score at all turned out to be the bigger problem. They came in with a serious goalscoring problem and it was brutally evident, with 15 shots and one on target. No Premier League side has scored fewer than their six, and they have now failed to score in five of their nine league games.

Their only effort on target came on 79 minutes, after Thiago had settled things, a limp low shot from McAtee that went straight at Kelleher.

The outlook

Brentford were far from their best, and it was very much a case of doing just enough, but they never looked particularly uncomfortable. With last season’s two defeats in mind, Brentford will take the three points however they can get them.

The Bees lead held this time, and against a side that scored so rarely, it never looked in much danger. The win keeps them sixth, on 14 points and two clear of Bournemouth, Tottenham and Aston Villa, while Forest sit 19th.

All images credited to Brentford FC