Brentford 1-1 Middlesbrough

Adama Traore was Middlesbrough's main threat on the break and took his goal brilliantly

Brentford's Championship play-off hopes faded after a draw with fellow hopefuls Middlesbrough left them eight points outside the top six.

Adama Traore jinked across the box before rifling past Daniel Bentley to put Boro in front in the first half.

Lewis Macleod cracked home low from the edge of the box at the second attempt to level before half-time.

Romaine Sawyers was sent off late on for a second bookable offence as the Bees battled in vain for a winner.

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With games running out, Brentford were desperate for a win to whittle down the points gap between themselves and their play-off rivals but Tony Pulis' Boro turned in a composed away performance to keep them at bay.

It was an entertaining encounter between two teams looking to play football, and focused on being involved in the post-season action.

Dean Smith's Bees were purposeful throughout, pushing the ball around neatly with Ryan Woods at the heart of their best work, but they were guilty at times of overplaying in dangerous areas.

Macleod's first goal for the club brought them level and they might have had more goals but for wasteful finishing from Neal Maupay, who flashed over a couple of opportunities.

The dismissal of Sawyers late on, after coming together with Britt Assombalonga in an incident which Simon Hooper deemed worthy of a second booking, was a disappointing finish.

Boro were more direct in possession than their hosts and although happy to contain the Bees, they carried a threat with Traore, Patrick Bamford and Stewart Downing linking up to good effect.

Brentford head coach Dean Smith:

"The second yellow card [for Sawyers] was very harsh as he couldn't get out of the way. I could show you five clips of Boro players who didn't get booked for doing exactly the same thing.

"He also doesn't make the decision straight away but sends him off after he's been surrounded by Middlesbrough players. I thought the FA had issued an edict about that so it's up to them to enforce it.

"It's a shame we have to talk about that because I thought we were very good today. It's easy to forget after watching that performance that they were a Premier League team last season."

Middlesbrough boss Tony Pulis:

"I thought they were the better team but we've worked really hard defensively and did a smashing job in restricting them to shots from outside the box.

"They are a decent side and Dean Smith has done a smashing job here. He keeps producing good players, sells them and producing new ones.

"I'm disappointed in some ways because we can play much better than that, but this is an old-fashioned ground with fans tight to a pitch which looks small, but they made it look very big for us."