Brentford have maintained their hunt for a Championship playoff place courtesy of a straightforward 4-0 victory over 10-man Blackpool at Griffin Park.

A first-half brace from Jon Toral sent Mark Warburton's charges on their way, before Andre Gray added his name to the scoresheet and Toral rounded off his hat-trick late on to make it 19 games without an away win for a down-and-out Blackpool side.

© Getty Images

The home team made a strong start to the contest, dictating the tempo of things before pushing forward, although early chances proved to be few and far between.

It took just 16 minutes for the returning Toral to edge the Bees ahead, though, as he picked his spot after being found by Jonathan Douglas inside the area to open the scoring.

Former Barcelona and Arsenal youth product Toral then doubled his personal tally for the evening less than three minutes later with a free header at the back post.

Joe Lewis had to be alert to deny Gray at the end of a quickly-taken free kick as Brentford pushed for a third before the interval, while Blackpool, who had to make two changes in the first half, saw their best opening of the first 45 minutes fall the way of the lively Joe Rothwell.

Things turned from bad to worse for the bottom-of-the-table outfit shortly before the interval when Charles Dunne was shown a red card for his lunge on Jota to leave themselves with a huge mountain to climb.

Much like in the first half, Brentford came out the stronger side following the restart and they would have stretched their advantage further had Lewis not kept out Alex Pritchard and Toumani Diagouraga in the early stages of the second period.

Yet despite the Cardiff City loanee's efforts, Gray managed to find a way through at the second time of asking having been given too much time and space to make sure of the points.

Gray and Lewis resumed their battle shortly after as the Tangerines stopper thwarted his opponent yet again, and the Englishman was to thank for also denying Toral and Chris Long with another double save.

There was still enough time for Toral to add his third in the dying stages as the 20-year-old compounded Lee Clark's misery to leave the Seasiders 12 points from safety at the foot of the table.