Goals from Terry Evans and Neil Smillie gave Brentford the bragging rights as they beat local rivals Fulham 2-0 at Griffin Park this afternoon.
The Bees delighted their largest crowd of the season by taking the lead in the seventh minute when centre half Evans punished some poor marking from the visitors by heading home a free-kick from captain Keith Jones. That goal galvanised the hosts, with Tottenham loanee John Moncur increasingly influential in the middle of the park, and Steve Perryman’s side scored a crucial second three minutes before the break.
Moncur made the goal with a peach of a pass from the midfield to release Neil Smillie behind the stretched Fulham defence and steered a composed finish past the stranded Jim Stannard. Fulham offered little in the final third save for wayward efforts from Andy Sayer and former Chelsea winger Clive Walker, who was booed throughout by the home faithful.
Brentford could have scored a third in the closing stages but Gary Blissett fired just past the post after a flowing four-man move that saw Moncur, Eddie May, Smillie and substitute John Buttigieg pull the beleaguered visiting defence apart.
BRENTFORD: Parks; Ratcliffe (Buttigieg 70), Fleming, Millen, Evans; Moncur, May, Jones, Smillie; Blissett, Holdsworth. Subs (not used): Stanislaus.
GOALS: Evans (7), Smillie (42)
FULHAM: Stannard; Eckhardt, Nebbeling, Elkins, Langley, Marshall, Scott, Skinner (Donnellan 62), Walker, Davies, Sayer (Milton 70).
BOOKED: Scott.
REFEREE: Allan Gunn.
ATTENDANCE: 7,962.
