Brentford 1-0 Stoke

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In-form Brentford kept their automatic promotion hopes alive with a tense home victory against fellow promotion hopefuls Stoke City.

The visitors had the better of the early exchanges and Deon Burton shot wide in the eighth minute with only keeper Paul Smith to beat.

But Stoke were always facing an uphill battle after Arnar Gunnlaugsson was sent off on 30 minutes for lashing out at Martin Rowlands.

The winner came midway through the second half when Steven Sidwell fired home from 35 yards after a poor clearance by Stoke keeper Neil Cutler.

The Potters almost grabbed an equaliser in injury-time, though.

Substitute Marc Goodfellow saw his effort well saved by Smith and from the resultant corner fellow sub Stefan Thordarson saw his header cleared off the line by Sidwell.

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Brentford: Paul Smith, Dobson, Anderson, Ingimarsson, Theobald, Rowlands, Paul Evans, Sidwell, Julian, Owusu, Burgess. Subs: Gottskalksson, Boxall, Hutchinson, O'Connor, Williams.

Stoke: Cutler, Brightwell, Clarke, Handyside, Thomas, Gudjonsson, O'Connor, Dinning, Hoekstra, Burton, Gunnlaugsson. Subs: Thordarson, Goodfellow, Henry, Vandeurzen, Viander.

Referee: A Butler (Sutton-in-Ashfield)