BRENTFORD and Nottingham Forest players both wore black armbands and observed a minutes silence in memory of former Wycombe Wanderers player Mark Philo who died after a road accident on Saturday, before their 1-1 draw.

Brentford boss Martin Allen had once been interested in signing the 21-year-old after seeing him start for Wycombe against Brentford, while Nottingham Forest also wore black armbands at the request of their striker Nathan Tyson.

He was Philo's cousin and both grew up together at Wycombe Wanderers.

Tyson asked Forest boss Gary Megson if he could wear a black armband and Megson replied that if he was going to wear one then the whole team would.

And Forest showed their solidarity and team spirit as they were forced to play with ten men for an hour.

Julian Bennett was sent off after 30 minutes after receiving his second booking of the night.

Forest, with new signing Grant Holt up front, were already ahead by then.

Kris Commons gave them a dream start when his fifth minute free kick was deflected by Bees keeper George Bankole, who had originally handled outside his area.

But the tide swung in Brentford's favour when Bennett was sent off.

Just four minutes later former Yeading striker DJ Campbell pulled Brentford level, supplying the finish after Isaiah Rankin's shot came back off the post.

Brentford then laid siege to the Forest goal and thought they had snatched an 89th minute winner when Campbell's shot beat the keeper only to be hacked off the line by a defender as both promotion contenders had to settle for a point.

But it was a good response from Martin Allen's team, who were beaten 4-1 at league leaders Southend United on Saturday.

This weekend the Bees play another one of their promotion rivals when they have home advantage against Huddersfield Town.