The 2014/15 Football League Trust Futsal season is now in full swing.
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 fifth set of matches last Wednesday, November 26.
In a fantastic game of futsal between West London rivals Brentford and Chelsea, it was the Blues who edged the game in a frantic last two minutes.
Building on their performance against Brighton last time out Brentford were playing confidently and it was Captain Azhan Iqbal who earned his side a penalty after being brought down by the Chelsea keeper Brandon Morgan.
Unfortunately, Iqbal’s penalty was sent wide but on the next Bees attack Iqbal converted a one-on-one opportunity in the eighth minute to give Brentford the lead.
Looking comfortable, a sloppy piece of play from the Brentford defence gave Chelsea a cheap goal to put them back on level terms with Hibbert-Kerr scoring.
The game then entered a cagey stage with both teams happy to go in at the interval level.
After the break Brentford’s Alfie Hipwell sustained a thigh injury which reduced the bench options but the boys from TW8 were still looking in control as chances from O’Neill, Driscoll and Iqbal were either saved or hit the post.
With six minutes to go, some excellent build up play with the rotations creating a good passing opportunity into Saki Shire three metres out, saw an audacious back heel from him to put Brentford into the lead.
Shortly after this Shire sustained an injury which meant that Brentford would have to play the last five minutes with no fit players on the bench.
With the players visibly tiring Chelsea scored a fortunate goal via a defensive mistake which levelled it up at 2-2 with 90 seconds to play.
By this time the Brentford scholars were hanging on and Chelsea went with the ‘fly-keeper’ to give them an attacking numerical advantage.
This high risk tactic paid off when in the very last second of the game Blues keeper Brandon Morgan’s shot somehow managed to creep in to give Chelsea the win.
It was a cruel fate for the Bees team who will have to learn from this but undoubtedly this was their best performance of the season.
• NEXT UP FOR Brentford B: Peterborough United FC (December 10)
The Bees Futsal A team made hard work of their 4-3 victory over Leyton Orient.
The Os, who came into this match pointless, looked more than capable of upsetting The Bees early.
Brentford once again started slowly and the rotations were laboured and not able to create the space required on a futsal court.
The slow start continued when in the eighth minute some clever play and a very difficult finish from Frankie Finn saw his shot nestle in the back of the net to put The Bees into the lead.
Orient came back a couple of minutes later with a powerful run from Arek Madjek down the left hand side and his shot beat Charlie Rose in goal to put them back on level terms.
A shock looked on the cards when Orient then took the lead a couple of minutes before half time with Liam Hodson doing the damage.
Brentford though managed to get back to 2-2 with a quick break and Harman Sandhu scoring in the last few seconds of the first half.
Brentford carried that on with Sandhu scoring his second a minute after the restart but the Bee could not shake off their rivals and three minutes later Orient had equalised after some poor defensive play allowing Madjek to get his second.
Harman Sandhu picked up an injury which left them with no bench options as Connor Miller was unable to play due to illness.
Some smart combination play from The Bees gave Abas Ali, an FA Futsal Centre of Excellence squad member, the chance he needed to give Brentford the lead again and a cool finish ensued.
The Bees were able to run the clock down to give them the points but quite clearly need to convert the quality of play from the practice court to match days.
• NEXT UP FOR Brentford A: Southend United (December 10)
Are you still considering what to do for next year?
Would you like to study, train and play Futsal for Brentford FC?
Then why not apply for our Futsal BTEC Level Three National Extended Diploma in Sports (Performance and Excellence).
We are running male and female programmes.
• Study 12 ½ hours a week
• Train three times a week
• Play in the FL Trust Futsal League
• Take coaching qualifications
• Get valuable and relevant work experience
• Excellent further education/career pathways
• Aged 16 and under 18 on 1/9/15
• Four GCSE’s (Grades A-C) or equivalent and must include English Language/Maths GCSE
• Attend a trial (no previous futsal experience required)
• If this is you then click on this link and register your interest and we will invite you to our full presentation in January 2015 -