Nottingham Forest remain in deep trouble after a late fightback from Brentford saw the West Londoners win 2-1 in the Premier League this afternoon.
Danilo's second goal in a matter of days late in the first half saw Forest lead for much of the game, but Ivan Toney's late free-kick levelled the match, before a stoppage-time winner from Josh Dasilva broke Forest hearts.
Steve Cooper's side remain just one point above the drop zone with their closest relegation rivals all still to play this week.
With Leicester City and Everton facing each other, one is guaranteed to go above Forest, so they will now end the weekend in the bottom three.
Despite the win, hopes of Europe look unlikely for Brentford, but a top-half finish is all but confirmed with this result.
The opening 40 minutes of the afternoon passed by without much excitement, with both goalkeepers having their handling tested by wayward crosses and long-range efforts.
The game sparked in life in the final five minutes of the first half though, when David Raya came out and completely missed Brennan Johnson's cross, but Forest's lone frontman Taiwo Awoniyi failed to keep his header down and missed the target.
That scare seemed to wake Brentford up and they had a good chance at the other end when Ethan Pinnock fired goalwards after a scramble from a set piece, but Keylor Navas got down very well to stop the strike, as Mikkel Damsgaard failed too on the follow-up.
However, with the last chance of the opening period, the visitors took a surprise lead.
After Brentford failed to clear from a throw-in, Morgan Gibbs-White's shot deflected off Ben Mee directly into the path of Danilo, who had a simple task with only Raya to beat and fired Forest ahead.
As the teams came back for the second half, Cooper's game plan was evident, as a wall of yellow shirts formed around the Forest penalty box, which Brentford struggled to penetrate.
With the pace of Johnson, Gibbs-White, Danilo and Renan Lodi on the counter, Forest still looked the most likely to score for large portions of the second half.
It took almost 30 minutes of the second half for either side to have a shot on target, and it was an audacious overhead kick while on the floor from Moussa Niakhate which tested the awareness of Raya in the Brentford goal.
It was another overhead kick at the other end which brought Brentford's first opportunity of the second 45, as Mee fired over acrobatically with 10 minutes remaining.
After doing next to nothing for the entirety of the afternoon, a bolt from the blue brought Brentford level, with a slight bit of fortune about it.
Toney, who hardly had a kick of the ball all afternoon, beat a poor Nottingham Forest wall from a free-kick, before Navas spilled the effort onto the post as it then rebounded back off him and into the net.
Navas would then come to Forest's rescue soon after though, when, despite a few questions of handball, Frank Onyeka's powerful drive cannoned off Yoane Wissa, completely wrong-footing the goalkeeper, but the Costa Rican reacted superbly to keep it out.
With a stricken Danilo needing to go off injured, Forest were reduced to 10 men having used all their available substitution windows, and they came under siege late on, with Aaron Hickey flashing an effort just wide of Navas's right-hand post.
Eventually the dagger to the hearts of the Trees came, when Dasilva's strike through a crowd of players beat Navas at his near post four minutes into second half injury time.
Despite a lengthy VAR check, Wissa was ruled onside as he blocked Navas's line of sight, and the goal was given to the delight of the home crowd.
With the visitors a man light, they struggled to muster any chances after the late goal as Brentford held on for a result that could have huge ramifications at the bottom.
After being minutes away from back-to-back victories, Forest now must turn their attention to another huge clash next weekend, facing bottom-of-the-table Southampton at the City Ground.
Consolidating a mid-table finish will likely be the task now for Brentford, and they face a Liverpool side still chasing Europe at Anfield a week today.
Andrew Delaney
