Brentford 2 Huddersfield 1 Brentford made it through to the Second Division Play-off Final at the Millennium stadium for the second time in just over a year courtesy of a 2-1 home win against Huddersfield Town in the second leg of the play-offs, writes Robert Trand.

After the match a calm Steve Coppell said: "I told the players during midweek that they had more than enough to win the game. I'm glad we didn't panic we had our moments when we were edgy - but all in all it was a typical Brentford performance.

"Brentford went through to the Millennium Stadium last year and I know a lot of the players were unhappy with their performance. It's nice that they get a chance to correct that."

However, they made the worst possible start after Steven Sidwell lost possession on the edge of the area in the opening minute and the ball fell to Andy Booth. Booth's stabbed effort looked relatively harmless, but somehow young goalkeeper Paul Smith let it slip through his grasp and the Yorkshire side were ahead after two minutes.

The Bees fought back valiantly, with Steven Hunt unlucky with an effort that just sailed over the bar from a free kick, and the home side drew level after 14 minutes. Paul Evans sent in a deep free kick that was met by the head of Darren Powell, who headed home.

Another free kick minutes later saw the Bees almost take the lead, but this time Ingimarsson's header was cleared off the line. Ten minutes before half-time a seeming disaster struck when Martin Rowlands had to be substituted due to a recurrence of his long term groin strain. He was replaced by the hard working Kevin O'Connor.

Brentford nearly fell behind again in the closing minutes of the first half but Sidwell came to their rescue to chest Ifill's deflected shot off the line.

The decisive goal arrive one minute after the interval. O'Connor was tumbled over in the box and just as the referee looked to be pointing to the spot Owusu fired a terrific shot into the far corner of the net. Owusu was magnificent all night and should have scored a hat-trick. On one occasion he intercepted a loose ball from Huddersfield captain Steve Jenkins and rounded Margetson in goal. Unfortunately the angle was too acute and he could only find the side netting. Later in the half the striker latched onto a poor headed back pass but could only head wide of the advancing keeper.

In an attempt to sure up the defence Brentford replaced striker Ben Burgess with Danny Boxall, but Huddersfield soon went close on two occasions. Firstly Hay had a terrific shot which bounced awkwardly in front of goal, but Smith made a fantastic save to make up for his earlier mistake and tipped the ball wide from the post. Then followed a scare moments later when Ijah Anderson appeared to handle in the area and the whole ground stopped. Fortunately for the home side the referee failed to notice the incident and the Bees held on to book a meeting with Stoke on Saturday May 11th in Cardiff.

May 2, 2002 16:30