Brentford moved to within one more result of a return to the second tier for the first time in fourteen years after scoring four times in the first half to end Fulham’s slim hopes of a play-off place this afternoon at Griffin Park.
More than 12,000 supporters packed into Griffin Park for a make-or-break promotion clash and the majority marvelled at a dominant display of attacking football from Phil Holder’s side. The Bees brushed Fulham aside effortlessly to record a fifth consecutive victory and seal their first ever league double over their near neighbours.
Dean Holdsworth inspired the rout with a devastating display up front – with his opener sparking a mad rush of three goals in eight minutes that the shell-shocked visitors never recovered from. The magnificent Marcus Gayle, who had his best game in a Brentford shirt, raced onto Holdsworth’s perceptive pass and then supplied an inch-perfect cross that the former Watford striker guided home off the post.
Gayle doubled the lead himself within the space of sixty seconds – rifling Neil Smilie’s teasing cross from the left high into the roof of Jim Stannard’s net. Smilie, who was sensational all afternoon, then beat his marker to send in another excellent cross that Gary Blissett blasted beneath the helpless Fulham number one. Simon Ratcliffe rounded off the rout right on half time.
The hosts might have made the margin of victory even wider in the second half but Stannard saved superbly from Blissett and Polish international Detzi Kruszynski, who covered every blade of grass in the engine room. Stannard also palmed a looping header from Holdsworth over the bar on a chastening day for Don Mackay as Fulham were blown away by the blistering Brentford juggernaut.
BRENTFORD: Benstead; Millen, Ratcliffe, Evans, Kruszynski, Hughton, Statham, Smillie, M. Gayle, Holdsworth, Blissett. Subs (not used): Manuel, Bates.
BOOKED: Gayle.
GOALS: Holdsworth (19), M. Gayle (37), Blissett (40), Ratcliffe (45).
FULHAM: Stannard; G. Thomas (Newson 60), Eckhardt, Nebbeling, Pike, Morgan, Scott (M. Kelly 60), Hails, Brazil, Farrell, Haag.
BOOKED: Brazil, Pike, Nebbeling.
ATTENDANCE: 12,071
