James Maddison ended a wait of 195 days, a torturous drought during which he suffered the blow of omission from England's squad for the Euros, and he did not try to conceal his delight as his delicate clip found the net.
Off came the shirt at the expense of a yellow card as he basked in the applause and out came the celebration darts, which had caused such a petty old rumpus featuring expert wind-up merchant Neal Maupay on Brentford's previous visit to N17.
The away fans jeered Maddison's name before this game, but the Bees rarely fail to spark him into life and his goal, Tottenham's third in the 85th minute, topped a splendid personal display and soothed late nerves for Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs had gone behind to a wonderful volley by Bryan Mbeumo inside a minute before recovering to lead at half time through goals by Dominic Solanke, his first for the club, and Brennan Johnson, his second in four days.
But wasted chances kept the game tight and Brentford were chasing a point when Yves Bissouma won the ball in defence. Cristian Romero found Heung-min Son, who made the final pass, and Maddison finished with style.
'We should have won by a fair bit more, but we still got the job done,' grumbled Postecoglou. 'You're always keeping the opposition in the game and that's been the story of our season so far. It was a quality goal with three of our four captains involved in it. It was important to finish the game off.'
Brentford, for the second weekend in a row, stunned their hosts within a minute. At Manchester City, it was Yoane Wissa who fired them into a shock lead with only 22 seconds on the clock. Here, with Wissa among eight first-teamers ruled out by injury, it was Mbeumo.
As at the Etihad Stadium the goal was recorded at 22 seconds and it was one to savour. Worked from right to left where Keane Lewis-Potter twisted clear of Pedro Porro and crossed. Mbuemo drifted away from Micky van de Ven and volleyed it first time with his left foot into the top corner.
As at the Etihad, however, the lead did not last long, and the Bees were trailing by half-time. Solanke equalised as Spurs pressed the visitors into a mistake as they played out of defence.
Maddison picked off a stray pass by Ethan Pinnock, drove into the penalty area and tested Mark Flekken who pushed his save to Solanke.
Still only eight minutes had gone and Tottenham assumed control. Maddison caused problems in the channel between Sepp van den Berg, on the right of a back three and wing-back Kristoffer Ajer.
Brentford defenders hurled bodies in front of shots and smothered attacks, and Flekken made saves, the best of them at the feet of Son when he was through on goal.
Johnson punctured the resistance. He was a stoppage-time hero in the Carabao Cup in Coventry in midweek and here he collected a Son pass, beat Nathan Collins for pace and finished inside the far post.
Both goalkeepers delivered thrills and spills with a blend of terrific shot-stopping and risky passing moves deep in their own areas. Guglielmo Vicario made fine saves from Mbeumo and Mikkel Damsgaard and the pick of them from Kevin Schade when his team led 2-1.
Spurs keeper Vicario also escaped despite handling the ball outside his penalty area, having chased after a cross he came for and fumbled, in the second half.
Referee John Brooks missed the offence, and the VAR did not intervene as they ruled it not a red card because it was not an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Frank reacted angrily and picked up a yellow card but accepted it had not changed the game.
'He handballed it outside the box,' said the Bees boss. 'It didn't define the game. It wasn't a penalty and it wasn't a red card. It was just a free-kick outside the box which John should have seen. I think he refereed a good game, that was just a small thing. If you come here, you need to get everything to maximise your chances.'