Brentford boss Thomas Frank saluted “unique” Ivan Toney after the striker’s newest dazzling show.
Toney was heading in the right direction once more as Brentford boosted their bid for Europe by profitable a feisty west London derby 3-2 in opposition to Fulham.
The striker took his tally for the season to 16 with one other penalty to assist sink the Bees’ native rivals.
Unfortunately for Brentford and Toney, ought to they succeed of their unlikely quest to achieve the Europa League, they might need to enter it with out their talisman.
Toney is going through the prospect of a prolonged ban after being charged with a complete of 262 alleged breaches of the Football Association’s playing legal guidelines relationship again to 2017.
But as he promised this week in a social media publish questioning the confidentiality of the FA’s investigation, Toney is concentrating on his soccer.
As effectively as one other profitable penalty, Toney hit the crossbar from a free-kick, tried an outrageous shot from the midway line which dropped simply excessive and virtually pulled off an audacious move along with his bottom.
“I think it tells a lot about his ability to have laser focus,” stated Frank.
“It’s not a coincidence. His ability to focus is quite unique. He never switches off.
“If there’s something going on outside the pitch he is still focused.”
It was candy revenge for the Bees after they misplaced by the identical scoreline to a last-minute Aleksandar Mitrovic objective at Craven Cottage in August.
Frank added: “Of course it’s special. I said to the players that this is for us the biggest derby.
“It’s more special against Fulham, in recent years we’ve had lots of interesting games, so of course it means something extra.”
Brentford led by way of Ethan Pinnock’s deflected shot after six minutes and may have been out of sight earlier than Fulham equalised in opposition to the run of play due to Manor Solomon’s fifth objective in 5 matches.
But Toney transformed his spot-kick after Issa Diop was adjudged to have fouled Christian Norgaard, and Mathias Jensen hit the third earlier than substitute Carlos Vinicius pulled one again in stoppage time.
Fulham stay within the European hunt themselves however boss Marco Silva stated: “It was a disappointing night for us. A disappointing performance as well, I have to say.
“They scored early in the game and early in the second half but to be honest it was our fault. You cannot start a derby away from home like we did.
“We were sloppy the way we started the first half and the second half. We showed a reaction to equalise but when they are winning they put nine players around their box. It’s not easy.
“The penalty was a really harsh decision from the official. It was a big surprise for me, but it was our fault.”
