The Bees were thirteen minutes away from beating the Royals to automatic promotion but disaster struck for them when Jamie Cureton equalised. After seeing off Huddersfield in the Semi Finals they were on the brink of promotion for the second time but lost out again.
But it is all smiles in Stoke right now, Deon Burton fired the Potters ahead just after the quarter hour before Ben Burgess turned the ball into his own net on the stroke of half time.
Stoke suffered relegation to Division Two four years ago along with Reading so it is almost poetic that the two clubs return to the Nationwide First Division at the same time.
Teams
Brentford: Smith, Anderson, Ingimarsson, Powell, Evans, Owusu, Rowlands (O'Connor 78), Dobson, Hunt, Burgess (McCammon 70), Sidwell. Subs: Gottskalksson, Boxall, Theobald.
City: Cutler, Clarke, Handyside, Shtaniuk, Gudjonsson, Thomas, Iwelumo (Cooke 56), O'Connor, Gunnlaugsson (Vandeurzen 75), Dinning (Brightwell 85), Burton. Subs: Oulare, Viander