Spanish wizard Jota hit his first hat-trick for Brentford with two injury-time strikes as the Bees left it late to beat Rotherham this afternoon.

Twice the hosts let their relegation-haunted visitors back into the game, but there was to be no denying the new king of Griffin Park – how Bees fans must wish he had been in TW8 rather than Spain for the past year.

Having earlier opened the scoring, Jota smashed home a penalty in the first minute of stoppage time after sub Justin Shaibu forced a handball from a visiting defender.

He then completed his hat-trick when the Bees broke from a Rotherham corner, and after Sergi Canos' shot was saved, Jota was there to finish past helpless former Bees keeper Lewis Price.

The Spaniard had earlier broken the deadlock just 14 minutes in when, following a lovely bit of skill near the byline on the left, it looked like Florian Jozefzoon had fluffed the cross, but Jota was alert to it, and as Rotherham dithered, picked the loose ball up and smashed it into the far corner.

Jota celebrates

The Bees almost doubled their money midway through the half when Jota's free kick from the left was headed back in at the far post by John Egan, but Konstantin Kerschbaumer's shot hit team-mate Andreas Bjelland and drifted wide, while soon after, visiting defender Ayman Belaid hit his own post while trying to clear his lines from Jozefzoon's cross.

Rotherham came close to a reply when a cross from the right came off Danny Ward's chest and sailed just wide, and when Semi Ajeyi was found unmarked at the far post but shot spectacularly wide.

Ward was denied again after the break when, having got the wrong side of Bjelland, he had little times to set his sights before Bentley was haring off his line to make a great block, which served a warning sign to Brentford that the game was far from over.

The warning as not heeded, however, and for all Brentford's dominace, Rotherham pulled level through Belaid's header from a set piece, just before a 67th minute applause broke out to mark the 50th anniversary of the thwarted takeover attempt by QPR.

Nico Yennaris shoots

It could have been worse as moments later Kerschbaumer cleared off the line, before Bentley slipped coming for a cross to present Jon Taylor with an open goal, but the Rotherham man somehow headed down and over.

But the Bees rode the storm and were back in front with 12 minutes remaining, Ryan Woods swinging in a cross from the right which Yennaris bundled home from a few yards out.

The lead lasted less than 10 minutes before a corner was only half cleared and fell 25 yards out to Rotherham sub Anthony Forde, whose crisp strike beat Bentley at his near post. It looked like the Bees had blown it, but Jota had other ideas.