In recent years, the only time you would hear 'Brentford FC' and 'New York' in the same sentence is when the Bees were playing away at Rotherham United's New York Stadium in the Football League.

But, now, Thomas Frank's side have a following in the American city, thanks to a fan club founded by a trio of loyal Brentford fans across the pond.

For a recent watch party against Arsenal, they had more than 30 people attend - and, like the club itself, their aim is to just continue to grow.

"We're in a bit of a unique spot, being in New York City - it's a good vacation destination, a good work destination, so we get a real variety of people,” Charlie Corr, one of the fan club's founders, explains.

“For example, for the Nottingham Forest watch party which was big, we had a lot of people, there was someone from the UK who was in New York specifically to run the New York Marathon - he was a Brentford fan.

“So, the day before he ran the marathon he came in, sat down with us to watch the game, and then ran the marathon the next day! We get that kind of stuff all the time we had.

“Somebody that is affiliated with The Globe [pub in Brentford] came in last season and brought us some plastic cups from the pub because he’d heard about us. It’s a great community.”

And that community is helping to be grown by the Brentford FC NYC fan club.

As mentioned, Charlie is one of the original members and founders of the group, after forming an allegiance with the club during a holiday with his wife in the UK in 2015.

After visiting a few different stadiums and attending other games in England, it was the atmosphere in and around Griffin Park that left the American wanting to continue his support for the west Londoners when he returned to the Big Apple.

Charlie then founded the fan club alongside Danny Claeys (a West London native and long-time Brentford supporter) and Ben Reynolds (who started the Twitter feed, @BrentfordFCNYC).

The trio were the first three to get together at The Red Lion - their current base to watch the Bees in action - for the club's first Premier League match against Arsenal at the start of the 2021/22 season.

Charlie recalls: “It first started with just the three of us. I actually reached out to the club because I wanted to know who to contact about supporter groups in America.

“They very kindly redirected me to somebody who was based in Washington DC, who kind of oversees the American Brentford supporters, and then they directed me to a couple of people, which was Ben and Danny.

“They had not met each other either, so we were all just kind of on social media and communicating via email. And then we just decided to meet up for the Arsenal match.

“That was great, we got the win, and it went from there. We then started the Twitter handle, and jumped on Facebook and other channels, just to see what we can get.

“We built a small group over the course of the first season and pretty much everybody has been back for the second one.”

He adds: “We’re starting to get people from the West Coast, someone from Seattle, even someone from Canada at this past watch party who came down after hearing about it.

“So, word of mouth is definitely spreading just because we're probably one of the few very consistent places that has established something now.”

“Our main group is probably eight to 10 but then, with everybody else coming in, we can have 15 to 20 - I think for Nottingham Forest we might have even gotten over 20, that was just a big one.”

Most of the season, London is five hours ahead of New York, which can cause some small problems for the fan club. A 12:30pm kick off on a Saturday would be an early 7:30am start in America - but they don't let that affect them, and it's all worth it if the Bees get three points.

“Last season, there were so many early games that we couldn't have too many watch parties," Charlie states.

“But, this year, everything has pretty much been 10am Eastern or later which is good because, in New York City, it's kind of frowned upon to try to open your doors a little early!

“We’re sort of established with the Red Lion as their early business because it's always us and we kind of have our own section of the pub that we've sort of taken over.

“I'll maybe start with a Diet Coke or something like that and then, as the game goes on, then maybe I'll switch to a beer or something.

“I try not to go too crazy because I don’t want to lose my whole Saturday, but I have. There have been some crazy games like the Manchester United 4-0, we were off to the races and celebrating after that one!”

He highlights the Manchester United game as one of his favourite games since promotion to the Premier League, as well as last season's 3-3 draw with Liverpool, which was one of the first big groups they had at The Red Lion.

“I'd say the first really big moment for me was the draw with Liverpool last season. It was an amazing match and expectations for numbers were kind of low at that point, with us being so new," Charlie says.

"But we had a good group, probably about 10 people or so, and the way that match went was just so entertaining.

“We didn't have a watch party for the first match of this season because it was too early, so the Manchester United match this season was our first one of the new season, and we had a great group.

“30 minutes in and it was just the dream start - I enjoyed the hell out of that.

“We still have a way to go. The Red Lion has been amazing for us and that is our venue, but we want it to be a little bit more permanent. We want to get things permanently on the wall, if possible.

“That's kind of on my mind as sort of the next step.”