Green claims Brentford will use heartbreak to reach promised land

Seasoned play-off campaigner Rob Green believes Brentford’s near miss in last season’s Championship final stands them in good stead to go one better this afternoon.

The Bees head into the Wembley showpiece against Swansea as favourites one year on from their heartbreaking 2-0 defeat to Fulham.

While Green tasted play-off success with West Ham and QPR, he suffered a penalty shootout defeat to Birmingham early in his career at Norwich at the end of the 2001-02 campaign. 

The following season they failed to replicate their success and finished just outside the top six, leaving the former England keeper impressed with the efforts of Thomas Frank’s side.

Tough to take

Speaking exclusively to LiveScore, 41-year-old Green said: "That was a tough season because we went from favourites to be relegated to being in the play-off final, to then being one of the more fancied teams but it not happening — it was really tough.

"I think you have your own expectations and you want to step forward and progress. What they have done, although they haven’t fallen away as they did last season in the automatic race, has been there or thereabouts again. 

"That consistency is there and they’ve done it while losing massive players. That’s huge. It’s very impressive and they’ve got the star man Ivan Toney who has just scored and scored and scored like you wouldn’t believe.

"They’ve stuck to their beliefs, their philosophies and there is nothing to not admire about it. 

"The way they have built the club over the years, you would probably say it’s leading to a point and after the near miss of last season, to come back even after losing players is such an impressive way to do it."

That experience of the big stage, combined with their strong end-of-season form, is why Green has them as favourites to win at Wembley. 

Swansea, on the other hand, struggled in the final months of the season, only winning three of their final 11 league games before scraping past Barnsley 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals — largely thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Oakwell in the first leg.

Green added: "Swansea have been in the Premier League but since then they have almost started restructuring, as such, so it’s a new step.

"They’ve done well to get there. They’ve sort of struggled towards the tail end of the season with goals and only scraped through against Barnsley by the odd goal. 

"It all points towards Brentford."

Woodman ready for the top

What Green does believe is that Swansea have a young keeper ready to deal with the pressure of a tense final.

Freddie Woodman, 24, is on loan from Newcastle and Green has seen first hand that he has the attributes to play at the very top.

The former Hammers stopper said: "Woodman, having known him personally as an individual and as a professional, he’s very diligent and very determined.

"His single-mindedness and focus is something to admire and one I think within the context of a play-off final is key. 

"A lot goes on very quickly in a play-off final and you need that focus and composure in the game. 

"I know there’s not 90,000 [fans] there but you’ve got so much riding on it and so much can change so quickly. To have that steady influence is huge.

"When we played against Blackpool at West Ham, we could have been 3-0 down in the first 10 minutes. You stand there and go, ‘Woah, let’s see this moment through'. 

"And when you get through that, and it was the same with QPR, you see small moments through and you go step by step."

Green adeed: "I heard Kepa [Arrizabalaga] talking about the FA Cup final and how it is games within games. It’s such a good way of describing it. 

"You go, ‘Right, this game is five minutes long — it’s not 90 minutes’ and that as a keeper is what you need to have in these games. 

"Break it down into manageable blocks and go from there. Realistically, you need to be winning so many of those little games within games to win the play-off finals."

Nerves of steel

All of this makes playing in a play-off final sound more nerve-racking than watching it as a fan.

While Green understands the sentiment, he believes the pressure and the all-or-nothing outcome makes them the best games to play in.

He said: "I think they’re the best. The bigger the outcome, it just focuses you like nothing else because it’s the climax, there’s nothing else to change it. All of a sudden you think, ‘I have to do it’. 

"I walked into the dressing room for QPR after the warm-up and Kevin Bond, the assistant manager, is curled up in the corner almost. He was a bag of nerves. I said, ‘Kev, it’ll be fine. We’re going to win'. And Kev goes, ‘Oh, thank God you told me that'. 

"But it was because we had a team of experienced guys who just knew you had to turn it on for one game — or a three-game season even. 

"It’s an incredible process. It is something we said at the time, a bit like Brentford last season — you don’t have to win it, but you can lose it. 

"Sometimes that is the truest statement with the play-off context and within the play-off final.

"You play one game and it can be gone within seconds. If you stay in the game, you’ve got a real chance."

Former England international Rob Green and legendary striker Dean Windass are helping football fans around Great Britain take control of their energy spending while also encouraging everyone to do their bit to help upgrade our outdated energy system by getting a smart meter — paving the way for smarter homes and more integration of renewables like wind and solar.