The 2002 Football League Second Division play-off Final was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

match which was played on 11 May 2002 at the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national rug ...

, Cardiff, between

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. It was to determine the third and final team to gain

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

from the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

, the third tier of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

, to the First Division. The top two teams of the 2001–02 Football League Second Division league,

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, gained automatic promotion to the First Division, while the teams placed from third to sixth place took part in

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

semi-finals; the winners then competed for the final place for the 2002–03 season in the First Division. Brentford and Stoke City defeated

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

and Cardiff City, respectively, in the semi-finals. It was the second season that the play-off finals were contested at the Millennium Stadium during the redevelopment of

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. The match was refereed by Graham Laws in front of a crowd of 42,523. In the 16th minute Stoke City took the lead from a

corner Corner may refer to: People *Corner (surname) * House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect) Places *Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States *Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia *Corner River, a tributary of ...

from

Arnar Gunnlaugsson Arnar Bergmann Gunnlaugsson (born 6 March 1973) is an Icelandic football coach managing Víkingur in the Úrvalsdeild. He is a retired international player. During his career he enjoyed spells at Leicester City, Stoke City, Bolton Wanderers, ...

, which was flicked on by

Chris Iwelumo Christopher Robert Iwelumo (; born 1 August 1978) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played as a striker. Iwelumo started his career with St Mirren before moving to Danish club Aarhus Fremad for two years. A move to Stoke City ...

;

Deon Burton Deon John Burton (born 25 October 1976) is a football coach and former professional footballer who played as a striker and who is the current Under-23's Manager of EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. His numerous clubs in English footba ...

struck the ball on the turn from close range, his shot taking a deflection and ending in the Brentford goal. Stoke doubled their lead a minute before half-time, when Gunnlaugsson was fouled just outside Brentford's

penalty area The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 16.5m (18 yd) to each side of the goal and 16.5m (18 yd) in front of it. Wit ...

and

Bjarni Guðjónsson Bjarni Eggerts Guðjónsson (born 26 February 1979) is an Icelandic former professional footballer, who was last manager of KR. He has played in Belgium, England and Germany and has two brothers who have also played professional football, Þ� ...

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offence ...

took a deflection off

Ben Burgess Benjamin Kieron Burgess (born 9 November 1981) is an English-born Irish retired footballer best known for his time playing for Hull City and Blackpool. He was capped by the Republic of Ireland at U18 and U21 level. Club career Early career ...

and beat Paul Smith in the Brentford goal. In the second half, Stoke goalkeeper

Neil Cutler Neil Anthony Cutler (born 3 September 1976) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Cutler started playing football with West Bromwich Albion and after loan spells at Coventry City, Tamworth and Chester City he moved on to ...

make a number of saves and the match ended 2–0, with Stoke promoted to the First Division. Brentford finished their following season in 16th place in Second Division, five positions and six points above the relegation zone. Despite gaining promotion, Stoke City sacked their manager

Guðjón Þórðarson Guðjón Þórðarson (; born 14 September 1955) is an Icelandic footballer manager and former player. He has previously been manager of Iceland, Icelandic clubs ÍA, KA, KR, Keflavík, BÍ/Bolungarvík and Grindavík, English clubs Notts Cou ...

five days after the final and replaced him with

Steve Cotterill Stephen John Cotterill (born 20 July 1964) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the manager of side Shrewsbury Town. Cotterill had a nine-year career as a footballer playing for Burton Albion, Wimbledon, ...

, who himself resigned from his position 13 games into the following season. Stoke appointed

Tony Pulis Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him on ...

as manager and ended the season in 21st place in the First Division, four points above the relegation zone.

Route to the final

finished the regular 2001–02 season in third place in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, the third tier of the

, two places and three points ahead of

. Both therefore missed out on the two automatic places for

to the First Division and instead took part in the

to determine the third promoted team. Brentford finished one point behind

(who were promoted in second place) and seven behind league winners

. Stoke City's opposition for their play-off semi-final were Cardiff City with the first match of the

two-legged tie In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

taking place at the

Britannia Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was ...

in Stoke on 28 April 2002. In the twelfth minute,

Robert Earnshaw Robert Earnshaw (born 6 April 1981) is a Welsh former international footballer who played as a forward. He is the only player to have scored a hat-trick in the Premier League, all three divisions of the English Football League, the League Cup, ...

played a

one-two One-two, 1-2, 1 & 2 or 1+2 may refer to: Sports * Push and run, in association football * One-two combo, in boxing Music * ''One, Two'', album by Sister Nancy * ''1 + 2'' (album), album by Recoil * ''Volumes 1 & 2'' (The Desert Sessions album) ...

with Peter Thorne before shooting from to give the visitors the lead.

Leo Fortune-West Leopold Paul Osborne Fortune-West (born Leopold Paul Osborne West, 9 April 1971) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played in the Football League for Gillingham, Leyton Orient, Lincoln City, Rotherham Un ...

doubled the lead in the 59th minute, scoring with a close-range header after

Spencer Prior Spencer Justin Prior (born 22 April 1971) is an English football coach and former professional association football, footballer. He is the manager of Papua New Guinea women's national football team. As a player, he was a central defender who n ...

's attempt rebounded off the Stoke goal-post. The game was then delayed for five minutes as police were needed to quell crowd trouble before

scored a half-volley for Stoke with six minutes remaining to make the final score 2–1 to Cardiff. The second leg of the semi-final was held four days later at

Ninian Park Ninian Park was a football stadium in the Leckwith area of Cardiff, Wales, that was the home of Cardiff City F.C. for 99 years. Opened in 1910 with a single wooden stand, it underwent numerous renovations during its lifespan and hosted fixture ...

in Cardiff. In the last minute of regular time, Stoke's James O'Connor scored from a header by

—the Stoke manager's son—to level the tie on aggregate and send the match into

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. With five minutes remaining, O'Connor's

was deflected into the Cardiff goal by

Souleymane Oularé Souleymane Oularé (born 16 October 1972) is a Guinean retired professional footballer who played as a forward. His son Obbi is also a professional footballer. Career Oularé was elected Footballer of the Year in Belgium in 1999, when he won ...

to give Stoke a 3–2 aggregate victory and progression to the final. In the second semi-final Brentford faced

; the first leg was held at the

McAlpine Stadium MacAlpine, McAlpine, MacAlpin or McAlpin is a Scottish surname. It may refer to: People * The Scottish House of Alpin * Its claimed descendants, the Siol Alpin and/or Clan McAlpin(e) * Kenneth MacAlpin, founder of said dynasty * His brother and ...

in Huddersfield on 28 April 2002. The home side had two goals ruled out: Andy Booth's effort was disallowed because of a handball and in the second half he was given offside after putting the ball into the Brentford net. Both sides had further chances to score but the game ended goalless. The second leg of the semi-final took place four days later at Griffin Park in Brentford. Two minutes into the match, Booth put Huddersfield ahead with a shot that beat Paul Smith in the Brentford goal.

Darren Powell Darren David Powell (born 10 March 1976) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. During his playing career, he appeared over 250 times in the Football League and Premier League. Powell was known as "a tough-t ...

levelled the score in the 37th minute when he headed in a free kick. Just after half-time,

Lloyd Owusu Lloyd Magnus Owusu (born 12 December 1976) is a retired professional footballer who last played for Hakoah Sydney City East in the NSW State League Division One, Sydney, Australia. After a move from non-League Slough Town, his career took off a ...

scored for Brentford to make it 2–1 and ensure their progression to the final.

Match

Background

This was Brentford's second appearance in the third-tier play-off finals, having lost the 1997 Football League Second Division play-off Final 1–0 against

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

. They had also lost in the semi-finals of the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

and 1995 play-offs. Brentford had played in the Second Division since being promoted in the 1998–99 season and had last played in the second tier of English football in the 1992–93 season. Stoke City had participated in the play-offs on four previous occasions, in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

but had failed to progress beyond the semi-final stage. They had last played in the First Division in the 1997–98 season when they were relegated to the third tier. Brentford had won both matches between the sides during the regular season with a 3–2 win at the Britannia Stadium in November 2001 and a 1–0 victory at Griffin Park the following March. Owusu was Brentford's top scorer during the regular season with 21 goals (20 in the league and 1 in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

) followed by

with 18 (17 in the league and 1 in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

) and Paul Evans with 14 (all in the league).

led the scoring for Stoke City with 11 goals (10 in the league and 1 in the FA Cup) followed by Andy Cooke with 10 (9 in the league and 1 in the FA Cup). According to bookmakers, neither side were clear favourites to win the final. In an attempt to avoid a repetition of the crowd trouble in the play-offs, local police moved the kick-off time to 1:30p.m. The match was shown live in the United Kingdom on

ITV Sport Channel ITV Sport Channel was a short-lived digital sport television channel, that was owned by Carlton Communications and Granada plc. It was launched on 11 August 2001 and closed on 12 May 2002, precipitating ITV Digital's collapse over a month late ...

, and was one of the last games broadcast by the channel before it closed down. Stoke had been assigned the south changing room at the

: the ten previous teams to have used those facilities had lost their match. Prior to this final, artist

Andrew Vicari Andrew Vicari (born Andrea Antonio Giovanni Vaccari; 20 April 1932 – 3 October 2016) was a Welsh painter working in France, who established a career painting portraits of prominent people. Despite being largely unknown in his own country, ...

installed a mural painted with the guidance of a feng shui expert in the dressing room. The

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

for the match was Graham Laws.

Summary

The match kicked off around 1:30p.m. on 11 May 2002 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in front of 42,523 spectators. Within a minute, Burton had made an early run splitting the Brentford defence, but was tackled by Michael Dobson. Burgess had what was Brentford's only chance of the half in the third minute when he struck a shot high over the crossbar from close range. Stoke dominated the first half and took the lead in the 16th minute. A corner from

was flicked on by Iwelumo, Burton struck the ball on the turn from close range, and his shot took a deflection before ending in the Brentford goal. Steve Sidwell's volley from the edge of the Stoke penalty area went over the crossbar before Gunnlaugsson beat Evans and shot over the goal. A minute before half-time, Stoke doubled their lead when Gunnlaugsson was fouled just outside Brentford's penalty area, and Guðjónsson's subsequent free kick took a deflection off Burgess and beat Smith in the Brentford goal. The second half saw Brentford denied by Stoke goalkeeper

on numerous occasions, including weak shots from

and Evans. Cutler also made a save late in the second half against

Mark McCammon Mark Jason McCammon (born 7 August 1978) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in England, he represented the Barbados national national team at international level. After starting his career with Cambridge United ...

, who had

come on Come On may refer to: Music * Come On (EP), ''Come On'' (EP), by Elf Power, 1999 * Come On (Billy Lawrence song), "Come On" (Billy Lawrence song), 1997 * Come On (Christine Anu song), "Come On" (Christine Anu song), 1995 * Come On (Chuck Berry son ...

in the 70th minute to replace Burgess. The match ended 2–0 and Stoke were promoted to the First Division.

Details

Post-match

Stoke's victorious

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

said that he felt sorry for Brentford: "I have sympathy for Steve oppelland his team. We have twice gone close and know how much it hurts." He expressed uncertainty about his future with the club, suggesting that he had not "got a clue what is happening". He said that the

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...

who had taken over the club in 1999 "asked for results and I have delivered – and now they have to deliver a proper contract". His counterpart Steve Coppell expressed dismay over his team's defending of set pieces: "We gave away two terrible goals." He also reflected on his own position and that of Brentford: "It is the nature of a football clubs that there are many imponderables in the summer – but particularly at our football club". He left Brentford the following month, claiming the club lacked ambition: "...at Brentford the aim is to survive... Noades (the Brentford chairman) told me before the end of last season that if I thought the last campaign was tight, the next one will be tighter", and was replaced by first-team coach Wally Downes. Brentford ended their following season in 16th place in the Second Division, five positions and six points above the relegation zone. Despite gaining promotion, Stoke City sacked Þórðarson five days after the final following a disagreement between him and Stoke's Icelandic ownership consortium, replacing him with

. Thirteen matches into the following season, Cotterill resigned from his position with the club in 15th place to join

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

as assistant manager to

Howard Wilkinson Howard Wilkinson (born 13 November 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. Despite having a low-profile playing career, Wilkinson embarked on a successful managerial career. He won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds ...

whereupon Stoke appointed

as manager. Stoke then went 13 league games without a win and eventually finished in 21st place in the First Division, one place and four points above the relegation zone.

References

Bibliography

* {{Stoke City F.C. matches 2 Football League Second Division play-off finals EFL League One play-off finals Play-off Final Play-off Final 2002 Play-off Final 2002 Football League Second Division play-off Final