Frank determined to infuse belief in his players that Wembley final will be theirs

Thomas Frank has effectively repeated the promise he made before Wednesday night’s heady play-off semi-final against Swansea by saying his players will triumph in next week’s final.

The Dane confidently predicted his side would turn around a 1-0 deficit from the first leg and he was a picture of happiness at the end of the 3-1 victory which took Brentford to a final showdown at Wembley against either Cardiff City or Fulham.

The way he hugged his players individually spoke volumes of the relationship he has developed with his players – like a Jurgen Klopp of the Championship – and he can now only foresee one outcome to this most wonderous final season at Griffin Park.

"I am extremely pleased and happy,” said the Bees boss. “It is a very nice moment and we have achieved something good. But we want to achieve something big and we are going to the final to win it.

“It’s important to celebrate tonight, but tomorrow I promise you we are ready to plan for that final and we want to win it.

“I think we’ve had a very good season so far – the best ever in the history of Brentford. I know they were in this league 70 years ago, but in modern times at least, and after the Corona-break we have actually been even better.

“I’m proud of the players and I know we’ll go into the final with momentum and massive belief and will probably leave everything out there in the final as well.

"We talked about not leaving the pitch without getting to the final. The message was we needed to start faster than we ever started before. And we did that.

"At 3-0 we should have been through to the final, but we made a mistake we shouldn't make. But after that they weren't really dangerous and it was nice to show the defensive side of our game.”

Frank said playing the last ever game at Griffin Park was a factor in galvanising his team – as well as a burning sense of injustice from the first leg when Rico Henry was wrongly red carded.

“We wanted to do everything to make it a magical moment, and my final speech in the dressing room was ‘let’s go out there, leave everything and make it one final moment of magic at Griffin Park. If we win that final, I’m looking forward to going to each pub [on each corner of the stadium].”