HAVING been absent last August as Brentford were denied a place in the Premier League via the play-offs, Bees fans celebrated wildly in person as they secured promotion on Saturday afternoon.

Ivan Toney’s penalty and Emiliano Marcondes’s strike in the opening 20 minutes proved that the west London side were too much for Swansea, who failed to muster a single shot on target throughout the match.

With each goal, Brentford players waved their arms to the crowd to pump them up even more, their return a welcome sight after a very long and difficult 15 months without them.

Manager Thomas Frank, who oversaw disappointment last season, said after the match that not overreacting this season was a key factor in their success.

“I’m so, so pleased and humble and proud to be part of this journey, with a lot of fantastic, dedicated, intelligent people, from staff to players, everyone in this club,” said Frank.

“The way we’ve built the club and progressed year after year and stayed calm after the unbelievable setback of last year. This must be an example to follow for so many clubs around the world.

“Of course, just after the final whistle I was very emotional. I had tears in my eyes and so did the staff and the players.

“Especially because the way you do it. If you get promoted, you get promoted but to get so close last year, we were so devastated.

“Then it was 10 days holiday and back into it. We had more waves of Covid, a condensed season, then 21 games unbeaten to go top of the league, then a setback and in the play-offs again, and anything can happen in the final.

“But I just sensed this week they were calm, relaxed and ready to be ruthless. It’s up to us to continue that journey next year. But I want to get drunk tonight and think about that tomorrow.”

Though the Swans ended the first half and started the second half the better of the two sides, they left themselves too big a hill to climb.

That hill became a mountain with 25 minutes left when Jay Fulton was shown a straight red card by referee Chris Kavanagh.

Boss Steve Cooper may not be in charge for much longer, having been linked with the vacant roles at Premier League clubs Crystal Palace and recently relegated West Brom.

However, with nothing confirmed just yet, he is planning on taking pre-season as normal in Wales.

“It’s the off-season now, whether it finished a few weeks ago or now, we had to determine which league we were going to be in,” said Cooper.

“It’s the Championship so we’ll just plan accordingly. Some players will come and some will go. That’s normal. We’ll just crack on with those plans now.”