Late September saw a change at the top for Brentford as Head Coach Marinus Dijkhuizen was replaced by Development Squad Head Coach Lee Carsley with The Bees sitting 19th in the Sky Bet Championship. A week earlier Marinus had been able to celebrate his first home win in charge of Brentford as his side came from behind to beat Preston North End at Griffin Park. Daniel Johnson had put the visitors ahead inside 35 seconds but second-half goals from Lasse Vibe and Marco Djuricin turned things round in The Bees favour. The Dutchman’s final game in charge saw a late Lucas Joao goal condemn his ten men to a 2-1 home defeat. Atdhe Nuhui put The Owls ahead from the spot in the first-half, the incident saw James Tarkowski shown a straight red card. Alan Judge levelled with 15 minutes to go before Jeremy Helan was dismissed for the visitors but Joao capitalised on a defensive slip and kept his composure to net in injury time. Life under Carsley began, four days later, with a 2-0 defeat to Birmingham City at Griffin Park. After a positive first-half showing from The Bees, Michael Morrison headed Blues in front midway through the second-half and, as Brentford piled forward late on, former Bees Clayton Donaldson raced clear to make the game safe in injury time.

George Hirst scored late on for Sheffield Wednesday’s Under-18s as they came from 3-1 down to beat Jon De Souza’s side 4-3 in South Yorkshire. Courtney Austin and a Reece Cole double had The Bees in control at the break but Hirst scored twice after the break to condemn Brentford to a third straight defeat. In his final game before taking charge of First Team affairs a Jan Holldack double saw Carsley’s Under-21s draw 2-2 with Leeds United at Jersey Road. A week later and the goals continued to fly in for the Under-18s as this time they lost by the odd goal in nine to Coventry City – Courtney Austin’s brace and strikes for Reece Cole and Ian Carlo Poveda were not enough to secure the three points. Following Carsley’s first-team appointment club legend Kevin O’Connor was elevated to Under-21 Head Coach and he nearly got off to the perfect start, only for a late Sergio Bus goal to deny him victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

A special tournament honouring one of the world’s greatest ever players and featuring some of the best up-and-coming talent in Europe was hosted at Brentford’s Jersey Road Training Ground. The Pele Cup saw teams from top Academies across Europe do battle with Brentford narrowly missing out on a spot in the final, all in the presence of the three time World Cup winner.