Sean Dyche watched his Nottingham Forest team play brilliantly during a 2-0 win over Brentford on Sunday.
The Reds went five points clear of the relegation zone by beating the Bees, with Igor Jesus and Taiwo Awoniyi scoring the goals on a very positive afternoon.
Who was your Man of the Match vs Brentford
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Forest still didn’t have much of the ball, but much like last season, this was a performance where the Reds dug in well and managed to hurt Brentford on the counter.
Jamie Carragher hailed one Forest star after his heroics in the game, but for Dyche, he was left to bemoan something that Brentford did throughout the game.
Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty ImagesWhat annoyed Sean Dyche about Brentford
In Michael Kayode, Brentford have a player who is a dab hand at throwing long balls into the box, but with yesterday being a wet afternoon, the Bees deployed towels to dry the ball.
Dyche isn’t sure whether or not that’s a legal move and has called on the Premier League to simply outlaw the situation for both teams and ban towels from being used to dry the ball.
He said in his press conference: “I can’t work that out, especially against Brentford. The home team are allowed to decide whether they’re used or not, which I said, as long as we’re allowed to use them as well.
“I don’t think in the EFL you’re allowed to use them, I don’t know why the Premier League allows certain teams to use a towel but everyone has their ways, everyone is trying to look for the little inches, it’s the way it is.
“If I was the Premier League, I’d just say look, no towels, you’re just adding another thing into the game for us to talk about. Just say no towels, it’s unfathomable to me and common sense is not very common these days.”
”It’s unfathomable to me common sense is not very common”
Sean Dyche on the Premier League allowing towels to dry balls for throw-ins despite this being banned in the EFL 🤔 pic.twitter.com/IIN5jKvspg
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 26, 2026
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Forest have to take heart from last three Premier League matches
After four straight defeats before playing West Ham in early January, nobody could have predicted that Forest would take seven points from games against the Hammers, Arsenal and Brentford.
🔢Score Taiwo Awoniyi out of 10 for his cameo against Brentford!
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That’s what Dyche has managed to do, however, and the Reds ensured that West Ham’s win over Sunderland on Saturday proved to be in vain, with the gap remaining at five points.
Crucially, in the last two games, Forest have come up against the top two teams when it comes to set pieces in the Premier League and failed to concede a single goal.
Dyche will know that there is work to do but with Crystal Palace, Leeds and Wolves to play next, there is now a real chance to stick some real daylight between the Reds and the relegation zone.
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