Brentford B host Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG this afternoon at Jersey Road, a 12:30 kick-off.

Game number 37 for Kevin O'Connor's men comes at The Bees' training ground in West London, the squad taking to the field in search of their sixth successive victory.

The last five have produced wins against Shamrock Rovers, Barnet, Rangers, Manchester United and Chelsea. That's not counting the Swansea City game, abandoned due to heavy snow, where Brentford were leading 4-0 at half-time.

Last week, two first-half goals had The Bees in control before another in the early stages of the second finished things off. Chiedozie Ogbene and Alan Judge scored in the first 30 minutes, then Reece Cole added the third.

Feature interview

B Team coach Allan Steele spoke to iFollow last week after overseeing Brentford's win over The Blues. He spoke about the season overall and what has impressed him in 2018.

He said: "Our games programme is set up to challenge the players and to try and prepare them for First Team football but it can never recreate that. That's the ultimate goal for a lot of these players, including the First Team players, to get back in that environment and playing competitive games that matter, and to try as best as possible to push this club forward."

Read his full interview (here).

Player Stats

Reece Cole made it four goals in as many games when he netted against Chelsea last Tuesday. The midfielder has seven in total this season, level with Ali Coote and Herson Rodrigues Alves.

Several players will be returning from international duty with their youth squads. Marcus Forss scored a brace for Finland U19 as his midfield teammate Jaakko Oksanen also got game time this week. Ellery Balcombe played two of England's three matches in Macedonia, helping them to qualify for the European Under-19 Championship this summer.

Mads Bech Sorensen and Lukas Talbro of Denmark, played for their U19 side but a late goal by Austria denied them passage to the finals in Finland.

Cole crossed the 1,000-minutes barrier for Kevin O'Connor's side with his 90 against Chelsea, having missed a lot of the season away with Newport or through injury. Raphael Assibey-Mensah is one appearance away from making 60 in total for the B Team, while Lukas Talbro is waiting to make number 65.