Lloyd Owusu admits his first season at Brentford was pure 'Roy of the Rovers' stuff.

The popular striker, who last week announced his retirement, had two spells with the Bees – the first after being plucked from non-league Slough in the summer of 1998.

Although it took him a few games to get off the mark, a young Owusu led the scoring charts with 25 goals in his debut season, including his Division Three title-winning strike Cambridge.

He told GetWestLondon: “After scoring four goals on my debut for Slough a few league clubs were scouting me. I went to Walsall for a month's trial, but Brentford bought me for £25,000 two weeks into my trial.

“The team Ron Noades assembled was of pure quality. Experienced players with a few young professionals and a touch of hungry non-league players.

“It was a dream come true to score my first pro goal against West Brom in the cup, and not in my wildest dreams did I think what followed would happen.

“I always thought my first year would be as a sub and not to play many games. I ended up actually being the only player to play all 56 league and cup games.

“The title-winning day at Cambridge was unreal. To score the only goal to win the championship on the final day was real Roy of the Rovers stuff. The after party at Noades' mansion was quality too!”

After scoring more than 73 goals over four seasons, Owusu moved on to Sheffield Wednesday when the Steve Coppell squad which blew promotion on the last day of the season, before losing the play-off final to Stoke City, broke up.

He said: “That Brentford team overall was the best out of the total of six years I was there. To draw that game on the final day when we'd have gone if up if we'd won was so upsetting. And then to lose the play off final to Stoke was also really sad.”

Owusu returned three years later, via a season with Reading, brought back by Martin Allen to partner another non-league gamble, a certain DJ Campbell.

In the event, injury meant Owusu missed the crucial run in as Brentford again missed out on the last day, and once more blew it in the play-offs, having also flogged Campbell.

On his knees: Owusu celebrates

The injury kept him sidelined for almost a year, and by the time he returned, the Bees were a shadow of the side he left behind, and not even a handful of appearances at the end of the season could save them from relegation, before Owusu departed for the final time.

He added: “I didn't take long to consider coming back. They always never go back to an ex-girlfriend, but Brentford was a real family to me, so it was a pretty easy decision to come home.

“A lot had changed since my first time there, but the fans were always the same quality fans as always. Both teams had their own qualities, but overall I would say the Coppell squad was better.

“The injury was really gutting for me as I honestly believe if I was fit, we would of got automatic promotion and I would have been in the Ghana squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.”

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Owusu rates his best Bees goal, aside from the title-clincher at Cambridge, as a blockbuster away at Blackpool in 2002, when he received a Paul Evans pass with his back to goal before flicking the ball up and finding the top corner with an unstoppable volley on the turn.

He also rates his best Brentford XI from his two spells at the club as follows: Paul Smith; Michael Dobson; Ijah Anderson; Herman Hreidarsson; Darren Powell; Paul Evans; Gavin Mahon; Ben Burgess; Lloyd Owusu; Stephen Hunt.