Brentford FC Futsal Club played two matches at the iconic Copper Box venue in Stratford, East London, on Wednesday afternoon. The ‘A’ team prepared for a hard fought game with Crawley Town ‘A’. The Bees suffered two overnight illnesses to the squad which meant a reorganisation of the teams.
The late withdrawal of the Brighton ‘C’ team due to transport issues meant that Brentford would be playing a friendly with Crawley to accommodate the Bees ‘B’ team.
Brentford dominated the first fifteen minutes of the fixture with the majority of the possession but also spurning lots of chances to increase their lead. Some sloppy defending from Brentford where a ball was launched to Crawley’s front pivot from their goalkeeper saw Crawley equalise.
Brentford hit back with three goals in three minutes, one from Harman Sandhu and the other from Frankie Finn giving Brentford the lead at half time, 3-1. Four minutes into the second half The Bees effectively put the game out of the Sussex team’s reach when Mason Roseboom scored the West Londoner’s fourth goal.
Azhan Iqbal scored his second and then completed his hat trick, increasing the lead to 6-1 as Brentford kept the pressure up. Skipper Louis Dailey netted a seventh, while Azhan Iqbal completed his Man of The Match performance by smashing in his fourth goal of the game and the Bees cruising to an 8-1 win and into the play-off positions.
Not surprisingly, Azhan Iqbal picked up the Man of The Match award. Brentford ‘B’ team had to content themselves by playing a friendly against Crawley ‘A’. Some of the ‘A’ team player’s also took the opportunity to get some more game minutes under their belt.
Once again the Bees scored in the first minute when Frankie Finn scored with his initial touch of the game. That’s where the scoring stopped until well into the second half when Humzah Karim scored a brace with 15 minutes to go and that looked to extinguish Crawley’s chances of getting anything out of the match.
Crawley took full advantage of some basic errors from Brentford and scored twice in two minutes to what could have been an exciting finish at 3-2. However, Azhan Iqbal then proceeded to score two in two minutes to see the ‘B’s through to a comfortable 5-2 win but it was Humzah Karim who was given the Man of The Match award.
Brentford now face up to Norwich City in a double bill at SportHouse Barking on 18 November.