Ivan Toney claimed he knew he would score and Brentford would win upon his return from his eight-month exile.
The striker, banned from football since May for breaching betting rules, was back on the scoresheet for the first time in 267 days in the 3-2 Premier League home win over Nottingham Forest.
Toney struck with an audacious free-kick to thrust himself back into the spotlight for the right reasons.
“I knew this would happen. I manifest things like this. Before I left my house I thought ‘we’re winning today and I’m scoring’. And I made it happen.”
Danilo volleyed Forest into a third-minute lead before Orel Mangala gave away a free-kick on the edge of the area.
Forest captain Ryan Yates was furious with Turner for not spotting the gap that Toney found, although no one noticed the England forward subtly rolling the ball a few inches to the right as the keeper was lining up his wall.
“Yeah, I saw the gap,” Toney added. “Sometimes you have a gap either way and I bent the ball around the wall and was happy to see it go in.”
“Ball displacement, and the law is clear,” he said. “Every goal must be checked. I don’t know if they checked or not.
“The players have to be a little bit mature as well because it changes the position of the ball. It’s a yard almost. But our players didn’t realise.”
Bees head coach Thomas Frank was blissfully unaware of the incident, and the law.
“I have no clue. I didn’t know that he did it,” said Frank. “He’s a clever player, what more can I say? He took it well and it’s in the back of the net.
Brentford went ahead in the 58th minute when Ben Mee got in front of his marker and headed home Mathias Jensen’s corner.
Seven minutes later Chris Wood glanced in a cross from Callum Hudson-Odoi for his fifth goal in four league matches under new boss Nuno.
But Toney was involved again when Brentford snatched the victory in the 70th minute, switching the play out to the right from where Jensen crossed for Neal Maupay to lash into the net and lift the Bees above their opponents and into 14th place.
Nuno added: “It was a good performance. I think we played well, we had good momentum, fighting spirit and togetherness. The result is frustrating but the performance was good.”
