It was a slow and costly start from Swansea, playing with nerves and caution in a game which saw Thomas Frank's high-flying Bees overcome an inexperienced Swansea side to claim promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their club history.
Steve Cooper was left shell-shocked as he witnessed his Swansea side slump to a 2-0 deficit after a catastrophic opening 20 minutes. It was always going to be a gamble for Steve Cooper when he decided to begin the game with a back-three of Cabango, Guehi and Naughton, a gamble which ultimately horribly backfired. The injury of club legend Wayne Routledge a week before was a significant blow to the team and was perhaps, instrumental in Cooper's decision to revert back to a system which he had previously abandoned after a poor run of games earlier in the season. With Routledge out, Connor Roberts came in and no player had deserved to play more than him after he was unfortunate to miss out on the semi-final games against Barnsley. Unfortunately however, our Welsh wide-man failed to make an impact as Swansea learnt the hard way that scraping results and scrappy football can only bring this team so far.
After the second Brentford goal on the 20th minute, Cooper's tactical switch back to the 4-back formation initially appeared ineffective towards the end of the first half as the travelling Jack Army could barely watch, as Championship record scorer Ivan Toney's outrageous half-volley from the edge of the box cannoned back out off the underside of the bar towards the end of the half. Swansea City found themselves fortunate to head into half-time only 2 goals down after a dominating opening period from Brentford.
The most optimistic of the Swansea City faithful thought maybe a comeback was on the cards as Wales' greatest side came out battling in the second half. Andre Ayew found himself on the end of a curling ball in from from Connor Roberts only to head his effort wide from 5 yards out on the 47th minute.
The Swansea fans finally had something to lift their spirits, a glimmer of hope.
The Swans fans were in full voice and the side were attacking the game when the human dust-pan Jay Fulton was hastily shown a straight red red for a horrible looking challenge on Brentford's Jensen. Whilst looking terrible at the time, replays showed how Jensen cut across Fulton's stride and Fulton's stud was caught in the back of Jensen's boot which sent them both flying.
Needless to say, at this point the game was all but lost. 2 goals and 1 man down in a final 20 minutes where Brentford fans sang their hearts out and celebrated their well-deserved impending promotion to the Premier league.
In the 96th minute, referee Chris Kavanagh brought the game to a close, blowing the whistle one final time, condemning the welsh side to another season in the second tier after a second successive failed play-off campaign. A summer of rebuilding will now ensue with many Swansea fans feeling apprehensive about what the next moves will be for a Swansea City Squad set for a massive overhaul over the few months. First-teams players such as Wayne Routledge, Andre Ayew, Marc Guehi, Freddie woodman and Connor Hourinhane may have each played their final game for Swansea City as they have each seen their current Swansea contracts come to an end.
"Some players will come, some players will go," "That's normal whatever league we were going to be in. We will just crack on with those plans now we know what league we are in. It's the Championship so we'll plan accordingly." (Steve Cooper, 29/05/2021).