Thomas Frank hailed Ivan Toney following Brentford’s 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

The centre-forward marked his return from an eight-month ban with a goal, curling a free-kick into the bottom corner before running over to his boss to celebrate.

“You always have a relationship with your players,” said Frank. “For all the players in the squad, I just want the best for them.

“Of course, Ivan is a big player and a big part of it, and of course we missed him.

“It was good to have him back, and I told him that. It was good to see him enjoying playing football.”

Frank was quick to praise the rest of the team following the Bees’ first victory since 2 December.

With the game level at 1-1 after Toney had cancelled out Danilo's early opener, Ben Mee headed home to put the west Londoners ahead after the break, before Chris Wood did the same thing to level for the visitors on 65 minutes. An incredible spin and volley from Neal Maupay three minutes later settled the game.

Frank continued: “No one can do anything on their own in life; if you want to achieve something big, you can’t go alone. Ivan is an eleventh of the team and if the 10 others are not performing, it doesn’t help. We need them all to perform together.

“Another one to highlight is Neal Maupay; the way he took his winning goal was very good. And the way he has come into the club is fantastic. We know what he is capable of, but five goals and three assists is impressive.

“It’s clear that [Toney and Maupay] have got an eye for each other and they connect well. I like it.”

The Bees boss added: “It’s so difficult to keep your excitement, joy and happiness down when you win. But it’s about having that consistency for me, for the players, for everyone – and I think we’re quite good at that.

“It was crucial today; a big three points for us. I said to the boys, ‘let’s do this a little bit more often, like we usually do.’ We are back to winning ways and of course we need to keep up the good performances moving forward.

“We played a fine game, and actually maybe not that much better than some of the other games, but we did more than enough to win the game. It was a fair and square win.”