Brentford 1-0 Ipswich Town
- Published
Neal Maupay scored his 12th goal of the season to give Brentford victory over Ipswich
Brentford kept their slim Championship play-off hopes alive with victory over Ipswich at Griffin Park.
Neal Maupay converted a second-half penalty to seal all three points for the home side after Jonas Knudsen felled Sergi Canos inside the area.
Ipswich finished without Luke Chambers, who was unable to continue after clashing with Bartosz Bialkowski.
Defeat left Mick McCarthy's side winless in six games, having failed to score in five of those matches.
Ipswich had the ball in the net on the stroke of half-time, but the referee had blown for handball before Dylan Connolly bundled home.
Brentford nearly took the lead in the first half when Yoann Barbet's strike deflected off Maupay to fly on target, but Bialkowski turned the danger behind.
Barbet then found Romaine Sawyers with a quick free-kick through the middle, only for the midfielder to pull his shot wide from 15 yards.
Victory kept Brentford within five points of the play-off places and extended their unbeaten run to five games.
Brentford manager Dean Smith:
"All we can do is concentrate on our own game and see where it takes us. We certainly won't be throwing the towel in, but we might need a few favours.
"That was as difficult a game as we have had this season. They made it very tough for us by going man for man which made it hard to get our passing game going, but you always expect that from a Mick McCarthy side.
"We had to work extremely hard to get time and space on the ball and when we did get it down we were loose and didn't use it well.
"But this is possibly a game we wouldn't have won earlier in the season. We had to dog it out and I thought we did that."
Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy told BBC Radio Suffolk:
"I don't think it's a penalty. Jonas has got his arm up but he's only protecting him - he's gone flying. I'm feeling a bit sore about that, to be honest.
"We had chances as well towards the end. They've not had any real chances.
"We could have been better with the ball when we won it back - that's probably been our Achilles' heel - but overall I'm pleased with our performance."