THE first half of Brentford’s play-off final defeat last month was not the first time the Bees have flopped at Wembley, recalls a former player.

Gus Hurdle was part of the Bees side who lost the 1997 play-off final 1-0 at Crewe under the old twin towers.

But while the Class of 2013 made a fight of it and came close to forcing extra time against Yeovil, it was more than David Webb’s side managed 16 years ago.

Hurdle said: “Wembley in 1997 was what I now know to be manager warfare, and Dario Gradi on the day got his tactics right. He worked out Brentford’s strengths, and I think at that time it was myself and Ijah (Anderson).

"We were both good full backs. We could both defend and get forward, and we always added an extra man in attack, but Dario found a way of negating that so that Ijah and I both became nervous of going forward, playing 4-3-3 against our 4-4-2.

"Barry Ashby was on the bench through injury, so Hutchie (Carl Hutchings) had to come from midfield to centre half, and the balance of the team was slightly off.

"I don’t think we froze on the day, I just think that it was a case of one team’s tactics against another’s, and Webbie was totally outwitted. The team couldn’t find a way on our own to play Crewe. I know people will say that they had Danny Murphy and Robbie Savage, but at the end of the day it is 11 players against 11, and their 11 knew exactly what they were doing and had a manager who believed he could get a result."

Hurdle’s recollections will be among those in the Big Brentford Book of the 90s, the third in the series of Big Brentford books, which will be released at the start of next season, priced £35 (plus a £5 courier fee).

However, pre-orders are now available from www.legendspublishing.net/90/buy/html and, until June 16, online buyers are eligible to have their name (or the name of a family member or friend) printed in the dedications section (only one name per order please).

If the name you want to appear in the book is different to that of the purchaser, simply email david@legendspublishing.net after making your purchase.