Sunshine, replica shirts and emotion

[BBC]

[Getty Images]

If a certain Danish lager company did football days, Saturday at the Gtech was the perfect one.

Watching a very welcome victory in sunshine and replica shirts, while moving up to sixth in the table, was brilliant - and the cherry on the cake was the return to action of the much-loved Josh Dasilva.

Brentford last won at home on the first Wednesday in January and hadn't won anywhere since the end of February - and we undoubtedly rode our luck at times on Saturday.

West Ham had an equaliser disallowed for a player's arm being offside and hit the woodwork four times.

But while they were unlucky to go in behind at the break, there is no doubt that the Bees stepped it up in the second half and thoroughly deserved the three points.

The Hammers must hate playing us - that's eight Brentford wins in 10 Premier League games against them.

The victory kept alive our European hopes and, although we were always unlikely to end the weekend in sixth, and we are away to Manchester City next, it looks like the qualification race will go right down to the wire.

Saturday also ended on a highly emotional note with Dasilva's first Premier League appearance since January 2024 after a nightmare run of injuries.

Dasilva, who joined us from Arsenal in 2018, played a massive part in our promotion from the Championship but has had only one injury-free season in five in the Premier League.

The stoppage-time substitution was one of three and of course he came on last. Many of us had a tear in our eye as we all gave him a standing ovation.

And it was wonderful to see the other players push him forward and then stand back so he could receive more thunderous applause on his own from us after the game.

Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast