Brentford boss Wally Downes rated this his team's best performance of the season as the Bees beat second-placed Barnsley 2-1.
Goals from Eddie Hutchinson after 47 minutes and Tony Rougier after 58 sealed a fine win, even though Rory Fallon headed a late consolation for the visitors.
The winning goal was particularly sweet for Brentford, because it came right from their own penalty area.
A sweeping move saw Jay Tabb hare up the left wing before cleverly finding Rougier, who stopped before curling a stunning 18-yard effort into the top corner of the net.
That made it 2-0 to the Bees, who had gone ahead just after the break when keeper Sasa Ilic dropped a cross under pressure from striker Matt Harrold and Hutchinson stooped low to head home from close range.
It was Rougier who ran the match, however.
The former Reading man, currently on a short-term contract, was outstanding all afternoon and won praise from his boss afterwards.
Downes said: "Tony has real quality and he's an excellent player. I want to keep him here and we will be talking this week.
"I was very pleased with this result and I would say it was our best performance of the season.
"We are starting to learn from our mistakes earlier in the season and that's important.
"Barnsley are a difficult team to beat and I think they came here unbeaten in nine games. They are awkward to play against and I knew our work-rate would have to be high. But we did well. We kept pressing them and we played well." The result came just two weeks after Brentford beat the then league leaders Brighton 4-0 and the Bees are now pushing towards the play-offs.
They dominated most of the first-half but were lucky to escape when Steve Hayward hit the bar with a long-range effort and Brian O'Callaghan headed against the woodwork 10 minutes later.
However, Brentford went ahead just minutes into the second-half and never looked back.
Rory Fallon headed home a late consolation for Barnsley but Brentford more than deserved their victory, even though Barnsley boss Gudjon Thordarson wasn't sure about the opening goal.
He said: "I was not happy with Brentford's first goal because it was clearly a foul on the keeper. It was a pivotal moment in the game and I thought it was a foul.
"I'm very disappointed because I felt we should have got something from the game. If we had taken our chances in the first half I'm sure we would have gone on to win it."