Well this is a first. We have 16 Conclusions on the Championship play-off final between Brentford and Swansea. Soak it in.
But first read Brentford are Premier League: Moneyball and a broken jinx
1) Let’s start at the beginning. The past couple of weeks have given us the long-awaited return of fans back in stadiums. We knew it would be great, regardless of the number, but when it matters as much as this, it is electric.
You didn’t have to be a Brentford or a Swansea fan to feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up throughout the entire pre-match procession and beyond. We will never take fans inside stadiums for granted again.
2) In last season’s final, Brentford began the game too slowly and were never really able to get out of third gear even when they were behind. One worry with the Bees this campaign is that it seemed they hadn’t learned their lessons from the mistakes of the 2019/20 campaign.
It took less than 10 minutes to show that Thomas Frank and Co. had rectified that mistake. One Sergi Canos through ball unlocked an unusually slack Swansea backline and allowed Bryan Mbuemo to earn a penalty at the despairing arms of Championship Golden Glove winner Freddie Woodman. In doing so, the last remaining part of the BMW partnership that fell just short last season had done more than the trio did against Fulham last summer.
3) Of course, spot-kick duties could fall to no one other than Championship record breaker Ivan Toney, who never looked like missing, even when Woodman dove the right way. Put them in the side of the net and the ‘keeper will almost never reach the ball.
Again, where Said Benrahma and Ollie Watkins could not step up when it mattered most in that Fulham final, Toney added his 34th goal of the season with consummate ease. We really should be used to it by now.
4) As good as Brentford were, Swansea didn’t half give them the chance to be so. Under Steve Cooper, they have built their foundations on solid defence and a super strike partnership in Andre Ayew and Jamal Lowe to score the goals required.
In the opening exchanges, neither were present, and Swansea resembled a team ethos of Paul Gascoigne in the 1991 FA Cup Final, putting in tough tackles and not-so-tactical fouls rather than sticking to the principles that got them under the arch in the first place. It wasn’t quite play-off final suicide, but Swansea certainly provided Brentford the candlestick with which to deal the first blow.
5) Swansea’s tempestuous side was evident from the first whistle, and it plagued them throughout the occasion. The booking of midfielder Matt Grimes set the tempo for the entire afternoon for Cooper’s side, his sixth-minute yellow card allowing Brentford runners to glide through the middle of the park with relative ease and at will for much of the remaining 84 minutes of the match.
It was a challenge which left Swansea players as hot under the collar as their jumper-wearing manager on one of the hottest days of the year in the cauldron of Wembley. Poor decision-making all round.
6) The lack of runners in behind for the turquoise and raspberry-clad Swans was put to shame midway through the first half as Brentford countered every bit as terrifyingly as Bournemouth had done to them in the semi-final second leg in west London. Whereas Swansea’s defending was not so obviously awful, there was a clear discrepancy between Brentford’s willingness to score and Swansea’s willingness to keep the ball out of their net.
Whereas many players at this level, in a game of this magnitude, would dilly-dally on the ball too afraid to take a risk, the French winger waited the arrival on the flank of Sergi Canos, who found Emiliano Marcondes to finish with an ease he hasn’t often shown in his time in the capital.
It meant Brentford had equalled their goal haul from their last four play-off finals within 20 minutes of their 10th of all time.
7) A word too then for goalscorer Marcondes, one of at least three players who would not have started this match were it not for injuries to key players ravaging the second half of this season. Had potential future England international Josh Dasilva been fit, Marcondes would have certainly started on the bench and may well not have stepped on the lush green Wembley pitch at all.
Likewise, Rico Henry being unavailable allowed Sergi Canos to put his early-season critics (myself included) to shame, while Euro 2020 bound Christian Norgaard was on the bench in spirit more than body allowing for a back three including usual right-back Henrik Dalsgaard, meaning youngster and Brentford B graduate Mads Roerslev continued to impress despite limitations to his game.
It is testament to those individuals and to their manager that this team has become greater than the sum of its parts, particularly when so many of the parts are already good enough for the Premier League.
8) Of course, Brentford fans will tell you there is no club more capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory than their frustratingly beloved Bees, and it only takes one chance to change the complexion of a game entirely.
Unfortunately for the Swans, the one man capable of scoring on a regular basis in their team missed a great chance early in the second half to put the pressure on a Brentford side who can be liable to crack when the heat is turned up on them. Swansea looked as capable of turning the temperature up a notch or three as an isolated eskimo with a broken boiler.
9) Even with the injuries which plague them, Brentford came into this match with options on the bench capable of changing the game in the guise of Tariq Fosu and Marcus Forss, while Swansea almost had to pray it worked with their starting XI. *Narrator*: ‘It did not’.
10) The death knell came with what at first looked like an innocuous, if not stupidly silly and needless challenge from midfielder Jay Fulton on counterpart Matias Jensen. The red card was shown and replays proved that to be absolutely correct. Intent or not, the number 6 laid his studs on the heel of the Dane and rode him to the ground.
In the cauldron of Wembley on such sunny days, it is no surprise to see the heat of the battle get to individuals, particularly with promotion ebbing away with every passing minute, but this was the sort of challenge which could only end one way. As it was, Swansea could have had the extra man and would have still struggled to make anything of this final. Going down to 10 was the final nail in the coffin for this season.
11) If the game had looked like descending into absolute anarchy much like the second leg of that Brentford v Bournemouth semi-final, particularly after Ivan Toney rattled the crossbar with what would have been one of the great play-off goals of all time just minutes after the second had hit the back of the net, the end result was something of a damp squib from a neutral perspective, with the drama having been used up in the semis of the end-of-season lottery.
That though was testament to the game management of Frank and his coaching staff. If the finals are quiet by comparison to what has come before, it is only because Brentford had afforded themselves the opportunity of a comfortable 70 minutes when the hard work had already been completed.
12) And so, the final whistle finally brought Premier League football to the red and white corner of west London, and perhaps more importantly, an end to the kit curse which hangs over those clubs who wear red and white shirts with black shorts.
The excellent Richard Foster noted that there were two opportunities this month for the run of 14 failed finals played in such kits to end. Brentford, themselves looking to avoid their own La Decima of failed play-off campaigns, broke two ducks with one very well-played stone. Lincoln will be smiling, hoping that a second bus of that variety comes along on Sunday afternoon.
13) For Swansea, the season ended in bitter disappointment, but they had had the majority of the two hours preceding the final whistle getting used to that. In reality, they will do well to take a note from their opponents and realise that success need not be immediate.
Cooper’s side have gone one better than last season, having lost to their victors today at the semi-final stage in 2019/20. There is no Brentford stopping them next season now, and if they continue to build at the same pace as the last few years, they may well be where Brentford are now in a year’s time, the same way Brentford have gone from defeat to victory in the space successive finals.
14) In the same week that Stoke City have reported losses of over £90million for the 2019/20 season, and in the same season that Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday’s financial misdemeanours have seen one relegated and the other very nearly so from this same division, it is testament to both sides for how they have operated in recent years.
They are largely self-sustainable clubs looking at the bigger picture rather than aimlessly chucking money at big-name signings with little other planning and philosophy besides. In that respect, both sides are already winners for going about their success in the right way. Win or lose on the day, continue to get it right and the prizes will come. Brentford should be the blueprint for many clubs, and Swansea will do well to continue on their current path. In recent times, where the big spenders and big boys have been trying to close off the door to the elite, it is fair to say Brentford gaining promotion puts the big boys of the second tier to shame too.
15) On a personal note, when I first started writing for Football365 almost two years ago, my primary aim was to write about Brentford and their unique way of playing football, on and off the pitch. I dreamed of showing the wider football world just how special they were. My second article for this website was about the steady, sustainable evolution of the club.
Today, almost two years on, the proof is in the pudding of just how right that belief in the club was. The Bees have had multiple knockbacks in the intervening time, but have always continued to do things their way. While I continue to write EFL content, they will be a unique force and presence in the top flight of English football and all the pitfalls that come with the Premier League (here’s looking at you, VAR). Long may their adventure continue.
16) And so to next season for both of these clubs. Swansea will have much to work on with the expected departure of Andre Ayew and a greater need for goals than before, while Brentford will do well to remember what got them here in the first place. For both clubs, the next stage of their journeys will be exciting.
But for Brentford, this is something the majority of their fans have never seen. Their second season at Lionel Road will see top-tier football in this corner of west London for the first time in 74 years, but the lessons of the last decade will remain strong. They will continue to bring players through their unique-to-English football B team, purchasing players from mainland Europe who suit the ethos and maybe, being able to hold on to their greatest stars at long last. That in itself is testament to just how far Brentford have come.
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