Owusu seals Brentford win

Brentford 2 Huddersfield Town 1 Brentford win 2-1 on agg.

Andrew McDermott
Wednesday 01 May 2002 19:00 EDT
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Brentford are once again 90 minutes away from the First Division after Lloyd Owusu's second-half winner saw off Huddersfield Town in last night's Second Division play-off semi-final second leg.

Owusu struck just after the break to complete Brentford's fightback after Darren Powell had cancelled out Andy Booth's early opener.

Brentford would have been promoted automatically on the last day of the regular season had they beaten Reading, but their promotion dream remains alive with a trip to the Millennium Stadium on 11 May. Sunday's first leg had finished goalless but the deadlock was broken in only the second minute at Griffin Park.

Poor defending by Brentford gifted the ball to Booth and the former Sheffield Wednesday man used the space to race into the penalty area and hit a left-foot shot which squirmed through the hand of the Bees' goalkeeper, Paul Smith.

Steve Coppell's men were level in the 14th minute when a free-kick from the left was headed in by Powell. They almost added a second shortly afterwards when Ivar Ingimarsson's header was cleared off the line by Chris Holland.

Brentford also had to make a goal-line clearance when Steve Sidwell blocked Jerel Ifil's deflected shot. Owusu had the final chance of the half when he headed over from close range. But he made amends within seconds of the restart, when the ball broke for him on the edge of the area and he curled a right-foot shot past Martyn Margetson.

Owusu should have doubled Brentford's advantage on the hour mark when he capitalised on Steve Jenkin's weak back pass and rounded Margetson but from a tight angle he hit the side netting.

Huddersfield went close when the substitute Chris Hay drilled a shot just wide of the far post. The visitors threw everything at Brentford in the closing stages, but the Bees held on in a tense finale.

Brentford: P Smith, Dobson, Powell, Ingimarsson, Anderson, Sidwell, P Evans, Hunt, Rowlands (O'Connor, 36), Burgess (Boxall, 69), Owusu. Substitutes not used: Gottskalksson (gk), McCammon, Theobald.

Huddersfield Town: Margetson, Jenkins, Gray, Ifil, G Evans, Thorrington, Irons, Holland, Heary (Hay, 74), Booth, Facey. Substitutes not used: P Evans (gk), Delaney, Moses, Mattis.

Referee: G Barber (Tring).

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