Brentford hand West Brom a promotion lifeline after shock defeat at Stoke

Leeds are champions as a consequence of this unexpected result and Stoke can wave goodbye to any lingering fears of relegation, though the real significance of Brentford’s eight-match winning streak coming down to earth with a bump is that West Bromwich Albion stay in second place with one game left to play.

Automatic promotion is out of Brentford’s hands again, leaving Slaven Bilic the most relieved man in the Championship after his side’s slip-up on Friday at Huddersfield. Just a point here would have taken the Bees into second place, with a home game against bottom-of-the-table Barnsley on the final day, but now they will have to be content with the play-offs if West Brom beat QPR at the Hawthorns.

That will be a big disappointment for the free-scoring form side of the top half of the table, though Brentford were below their best and short of attacking ideas just when they needed them most. Solid and organised in defence, Stoke were comfortable until the inevitably frantic final minutes.

“If I said it wasn’t an emotional moment I would be lying,” said the Brentford manager, Thomas Frank. “We gave everything out there, it might not have been the highest of the highs but that’s rollercoaster football. We’ve been on a fantastic run and I couldn’t be prouder of my players. Congratulations to Bielsa and Leeds though.

“I heard there was maybe a penalty and maybe an offside, but football is a marginal game like that. We have to look to our next game now, because this result is in the past.”

Brentford were enjoying the better of an uneventful first half before Stoke scored, Sam Clucas taking a potshot from the edge of the area and finding David Raya could only parry the ball to the waiting Lee Gregory. Perhaps the goalkeeper should have held the shot, or at least pushed it wide to safety, though the main question was whether Gregory was onside when the ball left Clucas’s foot. Replays showed him just about level but played on by Ethan Pinnock’s heel.

Before that Saïd Benrahma had been orchestrating the Brentford attacks with some vision and an excellent weight of pass, though it has to be said Stoke were happy enough to watch their opponents moving the ball around the edge of the area without posing any serious threat on goal. Adam Davies was called upon only once in the first half, when Benrahma’s floated pass picked out Bryan Mbeumo at the far post, but the ball arrived at an awkward height and there was not enough power in the header to trouble the goalkeeper.

Brentford’s players look downcast at the final whistle. Photograph: Matt Bunn/BPI/Shutterstock

Brentford stepped up their attacking efforts in the second half but it was Stoke who created the earliest scoring chance, Sam Vokes heading narrowly wide after meeting James McClean’s cross from the left.

The visitors’ clearest opportunity to equalise arrived just before the hour when an Ollie Watkins cut-back arrived at Josh Dasilva’s feet, unfortunately too quickly for the forward to compose himself and his hurried effort flashed the wrong side of a post.

Only in the final minutes did Brentford begin to attack with urgency. Danny Batth made a notable block from Watkins, Davies made two fine saves from Emiliano Marcondes and Pinnock, Sergi Canós found no takers for his low cross across the face of goal and the referee failed to spot a gentle push on Watkins by McClean in the area. VAR might have helped there, but it would have been an extremely soft penalty.