ROOKIE keeper Simon Moore kept a clean sheet on his return to the Brentford side as they played out a gritty goalless draw at Scunthorpe this afternoon.

Scunthorpe had the first sight of goal when the ball fell for Michael O'Connor 25 yards out, but Moore gathered his shot comfortably, while soon after, Sam Saunders was just wide with a good curling effort from the edge of the area.

The Bees came even closer on 25 minutes when a Saunders free-kick into the box bounced around dangerously before Harlee Dean hooked it just off target, but they had a huge let off when Sam Togwell's header down in the area found Jon Parkin unmarked, who spurned the chance and blasted well wide.

The hosts came close again when a corner was only cleared as far as O'Connor, whose volley flashed just the wrong side of the far post – or right side as far as Brentford were concerned – while Toumani Diagouraga just failed to find his feet in the box after being found by Saido Berahino.

Brentford should really have taken the lead a minute after the restart when Berahino turned superbly in the box but watched as his effort was beaten away by home keeper Sam Slocombe, before Marcus Bean's belter of a follow-up was blocked.

Down at the other end, a mistake by Jonathan Douglas let in Mark Duffy, whose pull back found Parkin, but the big man blasted wide once more, albeit closer than last time.

Parkin came even closer when, with 20 minutes left, Brentford failed to clear their lines from a set piece and Duffy again found the big striker, whose header crashed back off the crossbar.

Brentford then came close in a real goal-mouth scramble, and with 10 minutes left, Slocombe just beat sub Gary Alexander to a Bean cross.

BEES: Moore, Thompson, Legge, Dean, Bidwell, Saunders (Forshaw 70), Bean (Balkestein 90), Douglas, Diagouraga, Donaldson (Alexander 75), Berahino. Subs not used: Lee, McGinn

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