Herson Rodrigues Alves can feel his goalscoring confidence returning to him after he struck twice in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Cardiff City at Jersey Road.
The 18-year-old missed the first-half of the season due to registration issues but has now started the last five games for the Youth Team.
Having grabbed his first goal of the season last Saturday in the 3-1 win away at Millwall, Herson added two more to his tally on Saturday morning at Jersey Road.
He was also close to securing a hat-trick but replays suggested that The Bees first-half leveller, after Ellis Bellamy had put the visitors ahead, went in off defender Rhys Abrizze.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Herson said he was really pleased to get off the mark last week and it gave him confidence to carry into this week.
The striker added that much as he would like to have claimed the hat-trick he didn’t get a touch to the first goal but he is still very happy with scoring two.
“I can’t claim the first goal,” said Herson.
“It didn’t come off me so I will have to stick to two.
“Even though it is two not three it is good enough.
“It is nice to be back and scoring goals.
“Last week I scored so I got more confidence.
“I wanted to start scoring and scoring and today I got two more.
“Confidence is big when it comes to goalscoring.
“If you can get one goal in every single game then you come to the next game knowing that you scored last week and looking to score again.
“That was what was in my mind throughout the week.
"I scored last week so I thought I could another one or two goals this week.
“I was working on my finishing and looking to take that into the game.
“With the first goal the only think I had in my head was to get inside the box and shoot as early as I could.
“The keeper went the wrong way and it went in.
“The second goal was like a counter attack.
“Zain Westbrooke took a lot of players with him inside the pitch and I just took it with my left foot.
“On Tuesday when we work on finishing Ose always tells us to shoot as early as we can even if it is a block or it goes in.”
Saturday’s win was Brentford’s seventh in eight unbeaten league games and sent them 13 points clear of second-placed Swansea with only a handful of games remaining.
The victory was achieved on a hard bobbly pitch that Herson admits didn’t suit The Bees style.
However the Portuguese striker believes that once The Bees got back on level terms just before the break they were always going to win the game.
Herson felt it was important that despite the pitch he and his teammates still tried to play their natural game and ultimately that proved to be the right decision.
“In the first 20 minutes it was a scrappy game and I think everyone was a bit nervous,” said Herson.
“When they got their goal people’s heads were a bit gone but when we got our goal we thought we could win it and everyone’s confidence went up.
“It was a good performance from everyone.
“Throughout the week we work hard and we take it into the game.
“In the first-half we were trying to pass it around but the pitch wasn’t helping us.
“I think overall though we coped with the pitch and the wind well.
“Even though the pitch was bad we wanted to play out from the back and play through the midfield.
“We didn’t want to go long all the time because that would have been obvious and their two big centre-backs could head everything.
“Even though the pitch wasn’t helping we still played out from the back four through the midfield to the goal.”
Herson signed a three-year deal days after his 18th birthday in February to keep him at Griffin Park until he is 21.
With the guarantee of Under-21s football next season Herson wants to score as many goals as he can between now and the end of the season.
He hopes that if he can end this year on a high he can come back in pre-season full of confidence and hit the ground running for the Under-21s.
“I feel that I am getting more confident around the team and they are helping me,” said Herson.
“My aim is to score a goal in each game so that I can keep building my goal scoring to the end of the season.
“Even though my confidence is high I need to come back with the same confidence that I have at the end of this season.
“If I carry on playing how I am playing now then next year will be even better.”