Tony Craig said every Brentford player put in an “exceptional” performance in the npower League One win against Crewe Alexandra.
The Bees won 2-0 in Cheshire with Bradley Wright-Phillips heading in the first goal and Marcello Trotta scoring a second late on.
Tony said Brentford knew they had to win the game if they wanted to continue their push for automatic promotion from npower League One.
The game was played a little over 72 hours after Crewe won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final and Tony, speaking to Bees Player after the match, said it was a good time to play them.
He said Brentford started well, scored a goal at a good time, 12 minutes in, and produced the performance they needed.
“We knew it was a must win game and thankfully we put in a good performance,” said the central defender, who captained The Bees in the match.
“Every player played exceptionally well and it was a good result.
“We knew we needed to start quick.
“They had a great win on Sunday and we all watched it.
“This game came at a good time for us.
“They would have gone out to celebrate and we caught them at a good time.
“Crewe are a very good footballing side, we knew we needed to get in their faces.
“We started very well and got the goal at a good time.”
Tony said Brentford scored two exceptional goals.
The first came from a Crewe attacking position.
Bradden Inman wasted possession and Jonathan Douglas picked the ball up, his first touch ball was played on, again first time, by Adam Forshaw, Clayton Donaldson flicked it through his legs to meet the run of Shaleum Logan, the full back delivered his cross on the run first time to the near post where Bradley Wright-Phillips met it and powered a header in to the bottom corner.
Marcello Trotta swivelled on a sixpence and acrobatically volleyed the second in late on to seal the win.
“We have started sharp in a lot of games and not got our rewards,” said Tony.
“Thankfully we did today.
“Both goals were exceptional.
“Shay got forward well for the first and Brad got his head on it.
“That was a good finish.
“The second fell to the right person at the right time.
“He is left footed and an exceptional finisher.”
Brentford kept a clean sheet away from home for the first time since mid-January and Tony said the defensive performance was almost faultless.
“There weren’t any errors in defence tonight,” he said.
“In the past we have been punished for the ones we have made.
“We are a good back four, we know the strengths and weaknesses we have.
“It’s another clean sheet for us.”
Brentford went in to the game on the back of many of their promotion rivals losing the day before.
Leaders Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield United and Swindon Town, who are fifth and sixth in the table, all lost on Tuesday and Brentford gained ground with the win.
The Bees climbed to third in the table with a win and have four games left, starting with a game against Portsmouth on Saturday.
They will be crowned npower League One champions if they win them all.
Tony said he only concentrated on Brentford and was not worried what other teams did.
“I didn’t look at the results until after the game, I didn’t want to,” he said.
“I just watched the football on the TV.
“It was a pleasant surprise when I saw they had lost.
“We just need to concentrate on ourselves.
“We have four games left, we will take each one as it comes and concentrate on that.
“If only life was as simple as ‘four wins and we’re up’.
“We are finished with Crewe and now we will concentrate on Portsmouth.”
The Bees are back at Griffin Park on Saturday and Tony said a big home crowd would lift the players.
He said it was the sort of game all players want to be involved in.
“We haven’t been at home in a while,” he said.
“Hopefully there has been a chance to get some work done on the pitch, we can get our passing game on and see what happens.
“The more people that come the merrier, Portsmouth are a big club, they will bring a few and it will be a loud atmosphere.
“It is a great game to play in, one we are all looking forward to.
“The best thing we can do is take every game as it comes.”
Bees Player subscribers can see a full video interview with Tony Craig here.