Dean Smith hails Brentford character after late win over Nottingham Forest

Posted Wednesday, April 11, 2018 by PA

Brentford boss Dean Smith is looking forward to a mouth-watering clash with promotion rivals Fulham after a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest sustained their hopes of making a late charge for the top six.

An 81st-minute goal from Henrik Dalsgaard was enough to see the Bees snatch all three points, on a night when Aitor Karanka’s Reds had been denied by the woodwork twice, as well as seeing Daniel Bentley make a string of saves.

It was enough to leave Brentford four points off the play-off places with four games left to play.

And Smith is hopeful that is side can keep up the pressure on the sides above them.

“That’s three 1-0 wins on the spin – and it shows a lot of character,” he said. “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.”

Smith admitted his side had to work hard for the win – but was pleased for match-winner Dalsgaard.

“We started keeping the corners away from Costel Pantilimon and we got the goal from the last one,” he said. “A first goal has been a long time coming for Henrik, he’s had a couple of chances but I’m pleased he’s scored.”

Forest notched up a sixth game without scoring in the Championship, but boss Karanka felt this was a night when they had been unfortunate.

“If we play the same way on Saturday against Ipswich, we will get three points,” said Karanka. “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.

“We needed to improve but I saw it in the faces of the players before the game that they wanted to do well – and they did.

“For us to do any more would have been impossible. We hit the post, we hit the bar, and we might have had a penalty. But we must keep going, to get through this spell where nothing is going well.

“The players have tried to do everything. But we have to think positive, because we have another five games to play and we need to finish the season strongly.”