Toney's return heralds revival of Brentford's set-piece prowess - and winning mentality
Brentford (1) 3 Toney 19, Mee 58, Maupay 68
Nottingham Forest (1) 2 Danilo 3, Wood 65
It had to be him.
Ivan Toney needed only 19 minutes to signal his return to action. Having been outplayed for 20 minutes, and finding themselves a goal down, the Bees won themselves a free-kick just outside the area and Toney pinged it home inside the near post.
It looked as if Forest's defensive wall had been assembled with the wrong architectural plans, as they failed to cover that inviting near post. As it happens, it was a case of the street-wise striker discretely moving the ball to his right, when the ref wasn't looking, to open up a better angle.
Toney was not about to pass up such a gift on his comeback - and an early chance to silence away fans giving him grief. Welcome back to the world of Brentford's talisman. It's as if he's never been away.
His goal provided the catalyst for a sea-change - not just in this match, but perhaps in the Bees season as a whole. It felt like we were watching the Bees of last term once more.
The tide now turned, it was no real surprise when the Bees went on to claim a vital win with goals from Ben Mee and Neal Maupay.
After losing five in a row and seven out of eight, it is something of an understatement to say Toney's return was much needed. The loss of Bryan Mbeumo to injury and Yoane Wissa to the Africa Cup of Nations were other compelling reasons.
Toney bagged 21 goals last season before the ban came into force for the striker's breach of strict betting regulations.
In spite of his seemingly ungrateful recent pronouncements about wishing to 'play for a big club', Frank was so relieved to have him back, he immediately made him captain and gave him a place in the starting XI, sufficiently convinced about his fitness after just a handful of minutes in friendlies.
Forest did not want the story to be all about Toney and they stunned the Bees with a goal inside three minutes - Danilo burying a fine volley from outside the area after Vitaly Janelt and Mee had both failed to clear the danger.
The period of Forest dominance that followed would soon be undone by Toney's goal, which transformed the mood in the home camp. Suddenly, Thomas Frank's men had an extra yard of pace.
Toney almost set up a second goal with a cross that fell to Keane Lewis-Potter, whose shot on the turn crashed back down off the underside of the crossbar without quite going over the line, but a second goal did come from another set piece, with Mee the scorer - glancing in a corner from Mathias Jensen at the near post.
The lead was short-lived, as Chris Wood glanced home a beautifully angled cross from Callum Hudson-Odoi and Orel Mangala blasted a good chance wide that could have made it 3-2 to the visitors.
As it was, the Bees were the ones regaining the lead, when Maupay spun smartly onto his left foot after controlling a ball in from Mads Roerslev on the right, sending a sweet shot arrowing past Matt Turner's left hand.
Home fans had the story they craved. The importance of Toney to the cause was very much underlined.
Bees: (3-5-2) Flekken - Collins, Mee, Pinnock - Roerslev (Ajer 90), Janelt, Jensen (Yarmoliuk 90+7), Damsgaard (Baptiste 74), Lewis-Potter (Dasilva 90) - Maupay (Reguilon 74), Toney
Forest: (4-2-3-1) Turner - Montiel (Aguilera 86), Omobamidale, Murillo, Tavares - Mangala, Danilo - Dominguez, Yates (Williams 62), Hudson-Odoi - Wood
Attendance: 17,077
