In the 16th minute Stoke City took the lead from a corner from Arnar Gunnlaugsson, which was flicked on by Chris Iwelumo; Deon Burton struck the ball on the turn from close range, his shot taking a deflection and ending in the Brentford goal.

Despite gaining promotion, Stoke City sacked their manager Guðjón Þórðarson five days after the final and replaced him with Steve Cotterill, who himself resigned from his position 13 games into the following season.

Stoke appointed Tony Pulis as manager and ended the season in 21st place in the First Division, four points above the relegation zone.

In the twelfth minute, Robert Earnshaw played a one-two with Peter Thorne before shooting from 12 yards (11 metres) to give the visitors the lead.

Leo Fortune-West doubled the lead in the 59th minute, scoring with a close-range header after Spencer Prior's attempt rebounded off the Stoke goal-post.

With five minutes remaining, O'Connor's free kick was deflected into the Cardiff goal by Souleymane Oularé to give Stoke a 3–2 aggregate victory and progression to the final.

The home side had two goals ruled out: Andy Booth's effort was disallowed because of a handball and in the second half he was given offside after putting the ball into the Brentford net.

[11] Brentford had won both matches between the sides during the regular season with a 3–2 win at the Britannia Stadium in November 2001 and a 1–0 victory at Griffin Park the following March.

[17][18][19] Stoke had been assigned the south changing room at the Millennium Stadium: the ten previous teams to have used those facilities had lost their match.

[20] Prior to this final, artist Andrew Vicari installed a mural painted with the guidance of a feng shui expert in the dressing room.

A corner from Arnar Gunnlaugsson was flicked on by Iwelumo, Burton struck the ball on the turn from close range, and his shot took a deflection before ending in the Brentford goal.

Steve Sidwell's volley from the edge of the Stoke penalty area went over the crossbar before Gunnlaugsson beat Evans and shot over the goal.

The second half saw Brentford denied by Stoke goalkeeper Neil Cutler on numerous occasions, including weak shots from Lloyd Owusu and Evans.