Brentford remained in the hunt to reach the English top flight for the first time in 73 years after the Championship promotion chasers earned a vital 1-0 win over Preston on Wednesday.

Ollie Watkins scored the winner on just four minutes at Griffin Park as third-placed Brentford extended their flawless record since the coronavirus hiatus.

Played through by Emiliano Marcondes, Watkins fired past Declan Rudd for his 25th goal of the season to move ahead of Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic in the Championship Golden Boot race.

The unheralded west London club, who last appeared in the top tier in 1947, are just one point behind second-placed West Brom with two games left.

"We are in the play-offs, that's a fact. Why not give it a go for the direct promotion?" Brentford manager Thomas Frank said.

Brentford have equalled a club record of eight successive league wins in the same season in what could be their penultimate match at Griffin Park, the club's home since 1904, before they move to a new stadium.

"I will sit down with a glass of wine tonight and think it's actually quite good," Frank said.

"Eight wins on the bounce, eight well-deserved wins. Only Bayern Munich or (Real) Madrid are doing that at this moment in time."

Nottingham Forest's Sammy Ameobi netted twice to earn a 2-2 draw against Swansea as his side moved closer to securing a play-off place.

Ameobi cancelled out a fine strike from on-loan Liverpool striker Rhian Brewster and then struck again after Andre Ayew's penalty had made it 2-1 to Swansea.

Fifth-placed Forest are five points clear of seventh-placed Millwall with two games to play.

Swansea sit a point behind Millwall in eighth, with sixth-placed Cardiff currently holding onto the final play-off berth.

To add to Swansea's woes they finished the game with 10 men following Kyle Naughton's late red card.

Charlton remain in relegation danger after Birmingham's Lukas Jutkiewicz snatched a stoppage-time equaliser in their 1-1 draw at St Andrews.

Macauley Bonne's 58th-minute goal put Charlton ahead but, despite the end of their three-match losing streak, Lee Bowyer's side are just two points above the relegation zone.

Stoke, five points above the bottom three, inched towards safety with a 1-1 draw that did little for Bristol City's play-off prospects.

Danny Batth's second-half header gave Stoke a share of the spoils after Filip Benkovic had given the Robins the lead just before the break.