A Clayton Donaldson double helped steer Brentford to am impressive 2-1 victory over Crawley Town at Griffin Park on Saturday.

The Bees turned in an impressive performance against the side which started the day third in the league and could have won by more, despite conceding an equaliser following a piece of calamitous defending.

Harry Forrester caught the eye throughout and within the first ten minutes his curling cross from the left was steered home by Donaldson, but was ruled out for offside.

Shortly after a jinxing run from Forrester saw him beat his marker and cross to the back post, where Paul Hayes' header was saved by Paul Jones.
Forrester threatened again when he tried his luck from wide on the left, foiled once again by Jones, who made a comfortable save.

The Bees went ahead when Toumani Diagouraga set up Forrester, whose perfectly weighted through ball required just one touch from Donaldson on the edge of the box to steer it past Jones and into the bottom left hand corner.

Crawley failed to create many chance during the first half, a rare foray forward saw Jonathan Forte reach the left hand bye-line and crossing into the six yard box, where it was headed behind.

Just before the break a long ball through the middle saw both Forte and Gary Alexander striving to reach it, before Tony Craig nipped in ahead of them to steer it back to Simon Moore.

Brentford's good work was undone on the hour mark when a woefully short back-pass from Shaleum Logan was intercepted by Forte and his ball across the six yard box was prodded home by Nicky Adams.

Yet the Bees regained their composure and even hand claims for a penalty when Nathan Byrne appeared to handle the ball inside his own box turned down.

With a quarter of an hour remaining, Hayes ball forward was touched past the on rushing Jones by Donaldson on the edge of Crawley's box, with the striker following up for good measure to ensure the ball crossed the line.

Despite a couple of free kicks in and around Brentford's box towards the end, Crawley had to settle for the fact they were comfortably beaten by a very good performance from the Bees.

The only sour note came when substitute Farid El Alagui collided with Jones and was carried off with a suspected knee injury.


Brentford: Moore, Logan, Craig, Dean, Bidwell; Forshaw (sub O'Connor 84), Diagouraga (sub Adeyemi 76), Douglas,  Forrester; Hayes (sub El Alagui 79), Donaldson

Subs (not used): Lee, Legge, Dallas, Fredericks

Attendance: 5607

Man of the Match: Clayton Donaldson

Goals: Donaldson 23, 76