During the 2002–03 English football season, Brentford competed in Football League Second Division. Despite an unbeaten start and topping the table, the club won just four of the final 21 matches of the season and slumped to a 16th-place finish.

The 2002 Football League Second Division play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 11 May 2002 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, between Brentford and Stoke City. It was to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the Football League Second Division, the third tier of the English football league system, to the First Division. The top two teams of the 2001–02 Football League Second Division league, Brighton & Hove Albion and Reading, gained automatic promotion to the First Division, while the teams placed from third to sixth place took part in play-offs semi-finals; the winners then competed for the final place for the 2002–03 season in the First Division. Brentford and Stoke City defeated Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City, respectively, in the semi-finals. It was the second season that the play-off finals were contested at the Millennium Stadium during the redevelopment of Wembley Stadium.