Despite a hangover in the 1995–96 season, Brentford entered 1996–97 with largely the same core of players which reached the 1995 Second Division playoff semi-finals. That said, centre backBarry Ashby and midfielders Paul Smith and Carl Hutchings rejected new contracts in favour of monthly agreements, though all three would sign new deals during the opening two months of the season. Manager David Webb's only significant signing of the 1996 off-season was that of Scott Canham, paying West Ham United a £25,000 fee to turn his loan from the previous season into a permanent deal. Brentford began the Second Division season with an 11-match unbeaten run and firmly held on to top spot in the table. The four-pronged attack of Carl Asaba, Nicky Forster, RobertTaylor and Marcus Bent proved fruitful and Asaba's 7-minute hat-trick versus Shrewsbury Town on 31 August 1996 was the quickest ever in a league match by a Brentford player. One win in eight matches from mid-October through to mid-November dropped the Bees back into the playoffs, but the club returned to the summit early in the following 13-match unbeaten run. Forward Nicky Forster, who was in the final year of his contract, was sold to Birmingham City for a £700,000 fee on 31 January 1997, but would not be replaced. Despite the loss of Forster, the unbeaten run continued until defeat away to Preston North End on 8 March. In the aftermath of the match, manager David Webb tendered his resignation, citing verbal abuse of himself, the coaching staff and the players and "undisclosed sensitive issues" as the reason. Chairman Martin Lange refused to accept Webb's resignation. The Preston defeat gave way to a run of eight defeats in the final 13 matches of the season, in which just six goals were scored and the team failed to find the net at all during the final four matches. Things went from bad to worse when centre back Barry Ashby suffered a potentially season-ending injury on 19 April and Carl Asaba was sent off in the penultimate match of the season. The run dropped Brentford from 1st to 4th place and into a two-legged tie with Bristol City in the playoff semi-finals, who had entered the playoffs on the back of five consecutive wins. Brentford rallied in the playoff semi-finals, seeing off Bristol City 4–2 on aggregate, winning 2–1 home and away. The Bees were "exposed and outclassed" in the final at Wembley Stadium versus Crewe Alexandra, losing just 1–0 in a match which saw the Railwaymen hit the woodwork on three occasions and have two goalbound efforts cleared off the line by Carl Hutchings. In addition, Bees defender Brian Statham was sent off for committing a second bookable offence 15 minutes from time.
