The 2014/15 Football League Trust Futsal season is heaidng towards the Christmas break.
Brentford FC are represented by the Community Sports Trust Futsal BTEC Scholars (aged 16/17) who started their two-year education and performance programme this autumn.
They played their sixth set of matches last Wednesday, December 10, their last before the festive break.
Going into the final set of FLT Futsal League fixtures prior to the Christmas break, the Bees Futsal scholars were in confident mood after a good performance against Escolla Futsal Academy the previous week.
First up were the A team at SportHouse in Barking against Peterborough United.
Brentford were a player light due to an illness to Abas Ali which prevented him from playing.
The team talk centred around being confident to execute the game plan and despite it being nearly Christmas, the scholars were not to hand out any early festive gifts to The Posh.
The As enjoyed the early possession and hit the post twice with efforts from skipper Louis Dailey in the first 11 minutes.
On the quarter hour mark Connor Miller scored his first goal of the campaign when Brentford had a three on two attack seeing Miller finish confidently.
Miller had another opportunity to score when the Bees opened up the Posh defence but missed with a scuffed shot.
This should have seen the Bees push ahead but two goals in two minutes from Peterborough saw them take the lead just before the interval.
Both the goals came from defensive lapses.
It went from bad to worse for Brentford when Peterborough extended their lead early in the second half and a time out called by the Bees Coach Luis Melville required a change of tactics.
The fight back began with Frankie Finn pulling a goal back after 25 minutes drawing the keeper out and then drilling it into the far post from eight metres.
Brentford’s ability to hit the post twice more suggested it was not going to be their day when Frankie Finn came to the rescue with an equaliser to make it 3-3 with eight minutes to go.
The Bees piled on the pressure with wave after wave of attacks and it was Finn (seven goals for the season) who completed his hat-trick with a rocket of a shot which gave the keeper no chance to put Brentford into the lead 4-3 with four minutes remaining.
Yet again though The Bees managed to gift the opposition another goal with less than 90 seconds to go and had to settle for a point.
The Bees B team started off confidently enough against The Shrimpers and had good movement on their rotations which was causing their opponents plenty of problems.
However, the boys from TW8 were handed a lesson in finishing when they had several opportunities to deal with a dangerous situation in the penalty area and conceded a very sloppy goal on the fifth minute.
It was skipper Azhan Iqbal, the team’s top scorer who equalised with his sixth goal of the season on 16 minutes.
With four minutes to go in the first half, Southend committed their fifth foul.
For those not familiar with Futsal, when a team commits five fouls in a half, every (direct free-kick) foul after that results in a 10 metre penalty kick.
Brentford could not exploit this with United taking a more cautious approach on tackles and the Bees not able to tempt them into drawing fouls.
Two minutes later Kyle O’Neill with some excellent work down the left hand side of the court managed to score from an acute angle with his favoured left foot to put the Bees ahead 2-1 which was the score at half time.
With the game finely balanced and both side knowing the next goal likely to be decisive, clear cut chances were few and far between.
Brentford started to ramp up the pressure as the game head into the final quarter hitting the post before Humzah Karim put the Bees 3-1 up with six minutes to go.
It was now a case of The Bees managing the clock and seeing the game out which they managed to do.
Fixtures, tables and results can be seen
.
Brentford's next matches are on January 7 when both sides face Norwich City.
Want to be part of this fantastic education and playing programme with the chance to represent Brentford FC in the FL Trust Futsal League?
Then read below and then click on the link to register.
We are running a male and female programme from September 2015.
Here are the details:
• We are offering a full time two-year scholarship studying for a BTEC Level Three National Extended Diploma in Sport (Performance & Excellence) with Brentford FC Community Sports Trust.
• You need to be 16 and under 18 on September 1, 2015
• Require: 4 GCSE’s (Grades A-C) which must include English Language/Maths or equivalent
• Attend a trial
• For this September we will be running a girls BTEC as well based at Brentford School for Girls
• We will be holding an Open Evening in January at Brentford Football Club so if you are interested in finding out more for either course click on this link to register your interest please visit: