Brentford (A) 25/01/26

Brentford 0-2 Nottingham Forest

                                     Jesus 12'

                                     Awoniyi 79'

Since the first day of the season where Forest cruised to a 3-1 victory over Brentford, things have reversed for both sides. Brentford looked in trouble but now they had the chance to go into fifth as they continue to fly under Keith Andrews. As for the Reds, they are on their third manager of the season and are currently sat 17^th. 

The Bees have suffered just one defeat in their last seven across all competitions which came last week where they lost 2-0 at Stamford Bridge. Keith Andrews named an unchanged eleven from this defeat. However, their home record has been unbelievable; this season, Brentford have only lost one game at the Gtech which was to Manchester City. Last time out in the Premier League, Forest earned a hard-fought point at home to Arsenal. They did lose midweek in the Europa League away at Braga but after West Ham closed the gap to just two points, they would need a reaction. Dyche also named the same starting XI from his side’s last league game. 

History was mixed for this fixture. Dyche has won four of his six meetings against the Bees, making them the side that he has his highest win rate against (for any team he’s faced more than twice). The visitors also came out on top 2-0 in the same fixture last season but Brentford have never suffered consecutive home losses to Forest. 

The hosts came out bright from the off and almost took the lead just under two minutes in. Schade managed to get the better of Aina down the left before putting in a teasing ball. Thiago did manage to get his right foot to the ball but it flashed wide of the right post. Thiago has the highest shot conversation rate of striker who have attempted 20 or more shots in the Premier League this season. On the other hand, Jesus has the lowest, summing up Forest’s troubles in front of goal this season. No side has failed to score more times this campaign that the Reds (11) and only Wolves have scored less goals this term. 

Despite all this, Forest took the lead, through you guessed it, Jesus! Forest had had a good few minutes, breaking forward and getting crosses in. Once again, on the right, Aina managed to get in a cross from the byline despite Henry’s best attempt to force the Nigerian to run it out for a goal kick. The cross looped in the air but at the front post, Jesus chested it down before turning and firing a volley into the bottom left corner.  The Brazilian now has the most away goals in all competitions after Erling Haaland.

Things were looking up for Forest. The Reds are unbeaten when they have netted first this season whereas Brentford have only won one out of six when conceding the opening goal. They continued to dominate and look bright as the half continued. The only way they looked like conceding was by a mistake or poor defending and that’s almost what happened with just five minutes until injury time. Damsgaard noticed the run of Ouattara in behind the Forest defence. The winger took on the finish first time from around 15 yards out but Sels rushed out and made himself big to make the save. This was only Brentford’s second shot of the game and their first on target.

However, this gave them the spark to go and search for an equaliser in added time. Yarmoliuk whipped in a ball from the right which unexpectedly came close to nestling under the crossbar forcing Sels to tip it over for a corner. Just minutes later, Kayode’s long throw from the left reached the head of Van den Berg at the near post. Fortunately for Forest, his effort bounced just wide of the post. Half time was definitely coming at the wrong time for the hosts.

Sean Dyche has been leading at half time in 28 games and has only lost one of these. However, this half was going to be a nerve-wracking watch for all those associated with Forest. Throughout the entire half, they soaked up the pressure and allowed Brentford to dominate. Their plan was to frustrate the Bees and it seemed to be working. Despite getting into good areas and creating chances, it just didn’t seem to click for the hosts. Forest hadn’t registered a shot yet in the second half but it was them who got the next goal. On the counterattack, Gibbs-White played the ball to Awoniyi down the right. He was up against Van den Berg but he knocked it past him and broke into the box. Kayode came to try and close the striker down but he went sliding in, taking himself out the situation. All Awoniyi had to do was keep shrugging Van den Berg off and roll it into the bottom left corner which is exactly what he did. That is the Nigerian’s first Premier League goal in over a year.

Brentford were running out of both time and ideas and a chance late on summed up their afternoon. The Bees had a free kick on the right of the box, around 20 yards from goal, which Jensen whipped towards the back post. Ouattara rose the highest to meet it with a free header but the opportunity was wasted as he headed well over. The visitors managed to hold onto the three points and are now three unbeaten in the league as they go five points clear of the drop zone.

I’m really proud of the team’s performance. We looked to take the game to Brentford in that first half and we played some really nice football at times. Jesus has struggled in the league this season but his finish was absolutely brilliant. The second half was definitely a nervous watch but we stayed resilient and defensively solid and we managed to see off everything they through at us. That is more of what we need to see if we want to get out of this fight. It is so lovely to see Awoniyi back on the scoresheet after everything he has been through. That goal was unbelievable and I didn’t know he still had that in him. My man of the match would be Gibbs-White because although he didn’t create much, he was doing all the hard yards and really fighting in his role as leader. That’s now 7 out of 9 in the league and we need to keep this up.

Brentford: Kelleher; Henry (Hickey 67’), Collins, Ajer (van den Berg 37’), Kayode (Lewis-Potter 81’); Janelt, Yarmoliuk (Henderson 81’); Schade, Damsgaard (Ouattara 37’), Jensen, Thiago 

Forest: Sels; Williams, Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina; Sangare, Anderson; Hudson-Odoi (Morato 87’), Gibbs-White, Dominguez (Hutchinson 61’); Jesus (Awoniyi 68’)