Play-offs Runners-up | Second Division 3rd FA Cup Second round | |
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During the 2001–02 English football season, Brentford competed in the Football League Second Division. The Bees were denied promotion after defeat to Stoke City in the 2002 Second Division playoff Final.
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Season summary
After a promising, but ultimately disappointing 2000–01 season, Steve Coppell replaced Ray Lewington as manager of Second Division Brentford on 8 May 2001. In the knowledge he would be provided with little money to buy players, Coppell was also tasked with raising £500,000 in transfer fees. The previous season's squad was kept together, with three fringe players released and just two arrivals - youngster Stephen Hunt and defender Jason Price on a short-term contract. After a 1–1 opening day draw with Wigan Athletic, teenage Blackburn Rovers forward Ben Burgess was brought in on a one-month loan, which was subsequently extended until the end of the season.
Brentford went undefeated in the first eight league matches of the season, hitting the top of the table for the first time after a 4–0 win over Tranmere Rovers on 8 September 2001. After a first league defeat of the season at the hands of Swindon Town on 25 September, the Bees went on a seven-match winning run, seizing and holding onto top spot of the Second Division. Captain Paul Evans led by example, scoring 9 goals in 13 matches in all competitions before suffering a hamstring injury in mid-October. His temporary replacement was Arsenal's teenage midfielder Steve Sidwell, another loan signing which would prove to be a masterstroke. Between 10 November 2001 and 24 January 2002, Brentford won just twice in a spell of 13 league matches, suffering eight defeats, while briefly returning to the top of the table in late December.
A 4–0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in front of the Sky cameras at Griffin Park on 24 January 2002 turned Brentford's flagging season around, with twin forwards Owusu and Burgess finding the net with regularity. The Bees lost just two of the next 16 matches, but a 0–0 draw away to West London rivals Queens Park Rangers in the penultimate match of the season dropped the club out of the final automatic promotion place. Cause for concern was a goal drought suffered by Ben Burgess, who had failed to score since 26 February and the midfield was weakened by the £150,000 sale of Gavin Mahon to Watford, in a bid to reduce the wage bill. Brentford would play 2nd-place Reading at Griffin Park on the final day of the season, needing a win to secure automatic promotion, while the Royals only needed a draw. Brentford took the lead through Martin Rowlands, but were pegged back 13 minutes from time by Jamie Cureton, with the match finishing in a 1–1 draw which consigned the Bees to the playoffs.
Brentford faced 6th-placed Huddersfield Town in the playoff semi-finals, rematch of the 1995 semi-final encounter between the two sides. The Bees held the Terriers to a 0–0 draw at the McAlpine Stadium and reached the 2002 Second Division playoff Final courtesy of goals from Darren Powell and Lloyd Owusu to beat Huddersfield Town 2–1. In the final versus Stoke City, Brentford "simply had no sting in their tail" and were defeated 2–0.