Brentford 2-0 Swansea City: Toney & Marcondes send Bees into Premier League for first time
The Bees lost at this stage last season to London rivals Fulham but were in no mood to be denied this time around and were 2-0 up inside 20 minutes.
Ivan Toney’s 10th-minute penalty, his 33rd goal of an amazing campaign, opened the scoring and Brentford’s lead was doubled by Emiliano Marcondes just under 10 minutes later.
Swansea were much improved in the second half, but Jay Fulton’s red card effectively sealed victory for Brentford as they clinched a first promotion to the top flight since 1935, ending their 74-year absence from the highest domestic level having been relegated back in 1947.
Toney had scored all 10 of his previous penalties this season and never looked likely to err after goalkeeper Freddie Woodman felled Bryan Mbeumo when he was played in by Sergi Canos’ superb reverse pass.
He duly made it 11 from 11 by calmly slotting beyond former Newcastle United team-mate Woodman and into the bottom-left corner, with Toney’s record from the spot the best of any player in England’s top four tiers in all competitions.
Swansea struggled to respond to that early setback and they were soon given a mountain to climb when Mads Rasmussen expertly picked out Marcondes at the end of a counter-attack and the Dane rifled a fine finish into the bottom-right corner.
