Nottingham Forest 0 Brentford 2: Schade and Wissa goals secure impressive win for Bees at the City Ground | OneFootball

Goals from Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa either side of half-time secured an incredibly impressive 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Thursday night.

Both goals came courtesy of clever balls over the top of the Forest defence, which the Bees duo latched onto and finished well to secure an important three points for the west Londoners.

Thomas Frank named an unchanged side from the one that beat Brighton and Hove Albion 4-2 in the Bees' last game, looking to close the gap on the Premier League's top eight and a potential UEFA Europa Conference League spot.

Brentford had the better of the opening stages of the match, with two headed efforts on goal troubling Nottingham Forest inside five minutes.

The first came courtesy of Schade, who did well at the back post to nod it back across the face of goal, but there was no Bees player there to finish, before it was put behind for a corner.

The subsequent set-piece was met by the head of Christian Nørgaard, who also sent it back across the six-yard box, before a Forest defender hurriedly cleared it off the line.

There was another aerial chance shortly after, on the 15-minute mark, when Sepp van den Berg beat the offside trap and firmly met a wide free-kick centrally inside the penalty area, but it was saved well by Mats Sels, who palmed it away.

The Bees' pressure finally told on the brink of half-time, when a wonderful ball over the top from Nathan Collins was picked up by the chasing Schade inside the area, who beat Ola Aina to the ball and poked past Sels to put the visitors ahead.

The final kick of the half came courtesy of Mikkel Damsgaard, who picked up the ball on the edge of the box and curled towards the top right corner, but it went just over as the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the first period.

The heavens opened at half-time at the City Ground, which was a polar opposite to the blazing sun in the first half!

And Forest had the first chance of the second period through Anthony Elanga, who charged down the right, cut inside, and bent an effort towards the bottom-right corner; Mark Flekken was equal to it and did well to get down and tip it around the post.

One of the hosts' best chance of the game came just after the hour mark, when a whipped cross from Aina found Chris Wood towards the far post, but he glanced his header just wide of the post.

But Brentford hit back soon after and doubled their lead with 20 minutes to go. In a similar vein to the first goal, Flekken launched a ball over the top for Wissa, who controlled and superbly chipped over the goalkeeper, before wheeling away to celebrate with the travelling Bees fans.

Despite Nuno Espírito Santo's side dominating possession and territory, the west Londoners looked dangerous on the counter attack with the game coming to a close. Yehor Yarmoliuk drove all the way from the halfway line into the Forest penalty area, before laying the ball off to Mbeumo, who curled inches over the bar.

With Forest trying to find a way back into the game late on, their final chance came from a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area, wide on the left. It was laid off to Elanga who was slightly more central, but the forward fired straight at Flekken, who saved well before the ball was cleared, sealing a fantastic win for the visitors.

Nottingham Forest: Sels; Aina (Sangaré 75), Murrilo, Milenković, Williams; Anderson (Awoniyi 61), Yates (Sosa 85); Elanga, Gibbs-White (Jota Silva 75), Hudson-Odoi (Domínguez HT); Wood

Subs not used: Miguel, Morato, Toffolo, Abbott

Brentford: Flekken; Kayode (Ajer 83), Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter (Henry HT); Nørgaard, Yarmoliuk; Mbeumo, Damsgaard (Konak 83), Schade (Jensen 67); Wissa

Subs not used: Valdimarsson, Pinnock, Mee, Maghoma, Nunes

Attendance: 29,040

Frank praises 'robust' Bees

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank reflected on the Bees' victory at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest on Thursday evening.

“I’m very pleased with the win against a good opponent that have done so well here,” said Frank.

“I thought we were very robust, in many ways it was a good away performance; something we’ve done fantastically over recent away games.

“Defensively, very good. Overall, I think we gave basically nothing away in terms of big chances.

“You always want more and being a bit better on the ball, but that happens sometimes. You need to work hard, you need to be solid, you need to find a way to win, and we did.”

Collins: That's a massive win

Brentford defender Nathan Collins has discussed the importance of the Bees' win at the City Ground, as well as his assist for the opening goal.

"It was a tough game, a very tough game," said the Irishman. "I think we had every season out there, too - we had a nice sunny day, then the wind, the rain... we were just missing the snow!

"It was a great win, a massive win. Forest took a lot out of us, they tested us really hard. To come to a ground like this, where Forest have been unbelievable this season, they've hurt so many big teams, so to come out with a win and a clean sheet is fantastic."

On his assist for Kevin Schade's strike, he added: "With players that can come to feet but also go behind, as a defender, you don't want to play against that, I know how hard that is.

"We work on it a lot, we look at runs in behind, I saw a little gap, I tried to put the ball there, and Kev did the rest!"