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, 1996, 2000 and 2001 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) followed by Ben Burgess with 18 (17 in the league and 1 in the FA Cup) and Paul Evans with 14 (all in the league). Chris Iwelumo 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, 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 Millennium Stadium: the ten previous teams to have used those facilities had lost their match. Prior to this final, artist Andrew Vicari installed a mural painted with the guidance of a feng shui expert in the dressing room. The referee 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 Arnar Gunnlaugsson was flicked on by Iwelumo, Burton struck the ball on