Bees’ promotion hopes crushed by Boro

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Middlesbrough 3 Brentford 0
(Boro win 5-1 on aggregate)

Brentford’s remarkable season finished on a sad note as Middlesbrough ended their promotion hopes and reached the Championship play-off final.

Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, the Bees knew they faced tough task at the Riverside Stadium.

That task became even harder when Lee Tomlin netted on 23 minutes, and second-half goals from Kike and Albert Adomah sealed a resounding triumph for Boro.

It brought down the curtain on Mark Warburton’s time at Brentford, who have now suffered play-off heartache seven times.

The side he helped build as sporting director and then as manager led to promotion from League One did the club proud before simply running out of steam in their attempt to achieve the ultimate dream of reaching the Premier League.

A disagreement with owner Matthew Benham over the future direction of the club led to Warburton being told he would not be retained beyond the end of this season.

His successor will certainly have a tough act to follow after a campaign in which Brentford’s eye-catching brand of football won them many plaudits.

But they were undoubtedly second best in a one-sided game that looked out of their reach once Tomlin superbly curled the ball home after being found by Adomah.

The visitors had a decent spell early in the second half and Andre Gray almost made it 1-1, but there was no way back after Kike’s 55th-minute goal.

Jesse Vossen burst into the penalty area and after James Tarkowski managed to close him down, the loose ball fell to Kike who finished emphatically.

Adomah rounded off a great team move with 12 minutes remaining, exchanging passes with Tonlin before going past keeper David Button and finishing coolly.

Brentford: Button, Odubajo, Tarkowski, Dean, Bidwell (Dallas 60), Douglas, Pritchard, Diagouraga (Long 71), Judge, Jota (Toral 60), Gray.
Subs: Craig, McCormack, Bonham, Smith.

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