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It’s the morning after the day before, the day all of our footballing hopes and dreams came true. Like all Bees fans, I’m an emotional wreck… with a head full of amazing memories and a profound sense of disbelief at what I witnessed at Wembley Stadium. My Brentford, our Brentford, this Brentford, promoted to the Premier League. To play the best clubs in the world, as equals, at our new stadium, with us there to watch it. Could it be any more perfect, really, could it?

Countless words were written in the build up to yesterday about previous failures, about our team’s abject showings in play-off finals… but Thomas Frank and his players wrote new history and all the tears of finals past drained away into the Wembley soil along with the celebratory Champagne spray as Pontus and the lads lifted the trophy.

The reality, and the magnitude, of Brentford’s achievement hits me in waves… but it’s not just the names of the clubs we will play during the 2021/22 Premier League campaign that makes me tingle, its the knowledge that we can all share it together… last season hurt massively, but everything for a reason. And just like the promotion that followed defeat by Yeovil, Brentford are better prepared… now feels the natural time to take that leap forwards. It was meant to be. We deserved it. It happened.

Shedding tears over a football team may seem self indulgent after the Covid ravaged year many people have faced, but it’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the scenes in and around Wembley yesterday. The euphoria at hearing the final whistle, then watching the team throwing Thomas Frank in the air… Emiliano Marcondes and Mathias Jensen attempting to steal the statue sized cup…  then cheering as Matthew Benham, the man who has made all of this possible, rightfully took a bow, are moments I’ll never forget.

My first ever Brentford match was a win against Swansea, back in 1977… little did I know then that the same club would provide the opposition for the biggest win in the club’s modern history… a victory that sees us catapulted into the footballing stratosphere. I’m pinching myself again at the thought and plan to savour every moment.

Thank you to the players for what you have achieved for our club… thank you to Thomas Frank and the coaches for ignoring the negativity and staying focused, humble and strong… thank you to all you Brentford fans for your brilliant support… and to my wonderful friends for helping make yesterday one of the happiest days of my life. 

I am always proud to call myself a Brentford fans, but today I am the proudest man alive. “Oh Brentford we love you!”

Dave Lane
@Beesotted100