Fulham have no answers as superior Brentford extend their unbeaten run to 12
Brentford (1) 3 Pinnock 6, Toney pen 53, Jensen 85
Fulham (0) 2 Solomon 39, Vinicius 90
Ivan Toney made it 10 out of 10 in terms of Premier League penalties as Brentford avenged the 3-2 August defeat to the Whites at the Cottage.
The striker may be playing under something of a cloud these days, facing charges of alleged illegal football betting, but he keeps putting away those spot-kicks.
It was his 15th league goal of the campaign and restored the home side’s lead after Manor Solomon had cancelled out Ethan Pinnock’s deflected opener.
Mathias Jensen’s late tap-in sealed another impressive win for Thomas Frank’s remorseless team, with a last-gasp goal from Carlos Vinicius making no difference to the outcome.
The unbeaten Bees' run stretches to 12 league games and although the teams remain in ninth and seventh respectively, Fulham are now just one point ahead of their west London rivals. Both are eclipsing Chelsea in the table at the moment.
The Whites did well to recover from a bad opening quarter of the match when they could easily have trailed 4-0 – Bryan Mbeumo going close on three occasions.
But they missed the suspended Joao Palhinha in the engine room, while Alekaksandar Mitrovic – whisper it quietly – is struggling to make the impact he did at the start of the season.
Solomon continued his stupendous form to make it five goals in five successive games as Fulham recovered from a chastening opening half an hour.
The Israeli’s goals all came as a substitute, but here he was entrusted with his first start in the west London derby and he repaid the faith of boss Marco Silva with his equaliser.
He certainly has an uncanny knack of finding the net and has given the Whites’ push for European qualification a timely boost.
Bernd Leno was called into action early on, making sure a low curler from Toney did not find the bottom corner and then keeping out Mbeumo from close range with his legs.
And that wasn’t even the best chance. Moments before Leno denied him, Mbeumo missed a sitter at the far post after a Rico Henry cross from the left had eluded everyone.
But the irresistible start was not to be denied its logical conclusion and Pinnock eventually beat Leno with a low shot which deflected off Tim Ream.
Mbeumo was buzzing but having one of those nights where a goal kept escaping him and he was a whisker away with a curling free-kick past the Fulham wall which was only a few inches off target.
And before the half was out, Toney clipped the top of the crossbar with a free hit from 25 yards – the set piece earned by Mikkel Damsgaard, whose dash towards the penalty area was ended by a yellow-card trip from Sasa Lukic.
Lukic was lucky not to collect a second yellow from ref Anthony Taylor for a trip on Yoane Wissa. That came moments after he suffered a gash on the face from the boot of Toney – the incident appearing to be accidental.
Totally against the run of play, Solomon drew Fulham level when Andreas Pereira’s free-kick from inside the D bounced back off the angle of crossbar and post – with David Raya beaten – and the winger had a un unguarded net to nod into.
The Bees restored their lead soon after the restart – Toney putting away yet another penalty after Issa Diop’s boot clattered into Christian Norgaard’s foot inside the box.
His already sky-high confidence now well and truly into the stratosphere, the striker almost pulled off an audacious attempt to beat Leno from just inside the halfway line – the keeper off his line. The ball bounced on top of the net.
The Bees stayed in control during a one-sided second half and made sure of victory when sub Kevin Schade burst past Antonee Robinson to put a goal on a plate for Jensen.
There was consolation goal for Fulham, when Vinicius clipped home after Raya had spilled a shot from Pereira, but it came way too late in the day for the Cottagers.
Bees: (4-3-3) Raya – Hickey (Roerslev 90), Pinnock, Mee, Henry – Damsgaard (Janelt 75), Norgaard, Jensen – Mbeumo (Dasilva 90), Toney, Wissa (Schade 75). Subs not used: Cox, Onyeka, Jansson, Ajer, Baptiste
Whites: (4-2-3-1) Leno – Tete (Cedric Soares 80), Diop, Ream, Robinson – Reed, Lukic (Decordova-Reid 75) – Willian (Vinicius 80), Pereira, Solomon (Wilson 65) – Mitrovic. Subs not used: Rodak, Tosin, James, Harris, Wickens
Attendance: 17,025
