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 fourth set of matches last Wednesday, November 12.
Brentford B drew 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion, one of the teams expected to challenge for the South East League Two title.
The Futsal Bees went into this game with six players plus a stand-in keeper and knew that that they were going to have to put in a serious shift with Brighton having plenty on the bench to utilise.
Brentford got off to the worst possible start with Brighton’s Jordan Harris burying an unstoppable shot from 15 metres into the top right hand corner.
However, instead of pressing home their advantage and piling on the pressure the Brighton Coach decided that they were going to pass the ball across their own penalty area and make no attempt to play forward.
This carried on for three or four minutes with a bemused Bees team looking on waiting for them to start an attack.
Ironically, this was playing into Brentford’s hands as this gave them the chance to rest.
There was brief period of action and then Brighton reverted to their ‘rope-a-dope’ tactics again of passing the ball across their own penalty area.
It was an unedifying sight and did not make for a great spectacle for the watching teams from the side lines.
The game finally sparked into action and Brentford enjoyed some good possession and still fresh looked very focused.
A shot from the Bees Mason Roseboom was spilled and skipper Azhan Iqbal was quickest to react to level up the score at 1-1.
The second half kicked off and Brentford having been let off the hook with a very low key first half knew that they had enough in the tank to go for it in the second half so much so that it was they who were growing in confidence with every attack.
Brighton’s keeper was called into action and had to make four superb saves to keep Brentford out.
Unfortunately for Brentford, Tommy Driscoll’s rocket of a shot hit the underside of the bar and despite him convinced the ball was over the line the referee waved play on.
Brentford’s pressure could not yield a winner and the fact that Brighton keeper Ashley Sweetman was awarded Man of The Match tells the story of the second half.
Brighton were correctly awarded an indirect free kick on the edge of the Brentford penalty area due to the Bees stopper not releasing the ball within the permitted four seconds.
Controversiall,y with time running out, the match clock had been stopped by an unauthorised person sitting at the officials table with 16 seconds to go.
After some discussion the match officials decided to reset the clock to one minute.
Despite this Brentford held strong and saw out the time capping a hugely impressive performance against Brighton and are second in League Two on goal difference.
Chelsea suffered their second loss of the season against Norwich City who won 4-2 and remain unbeaten.
Even at this early stage they look the team to beat.
Peterborough United recorded their first win of the season beating winless Southend United 8-6.
Next Bees B fixture: November 26 v Chelsea FC B
Like their B team counterparts Brentford went into this game with six players but had a far easier time with a comprehensive 6-1 victory which moves the team up into the top half of the table.
It was a low key start to the game with Crawley content to keep possession without really threatening the Bees goal.
This went on for the opening period before the Bees called a time out which coincided with a Bees free kick on the edge of the Red Devils penalty area.
During the time out the Bees Coach Luis Melville opted to employ a full court press on Crawley to increase the tempo of the game but also to work on a free kick idea.
Frankie Finn converted the free kick after eight minutes and the Bees were up and running with skipper Louis Dailey doubling the lead a few minutes later.
Whilst Brentford were enjoying lots of the ball they were not at their best but Brad Scott, called up to The FA Centre of Excellence Futsal squad, received the ball on the half way line and dribbled past three players to make it 3-0 after a quarter of an hour.
After the interval Brentford carried on where they left off and Scott scored his second of the game ensuring that Crawley were going to walk with no points from this match.
Two further goals, one each from Dailey and Finn, put the gloss on a comfortable performance bar a sloppy piece of play in the last minute with three players chasing a hat-trick a Crawley counter-attack with no defensive cover left the Brentford keeper Charlie Rose exposed giving the opposition a consolation goal.
Next up for the Bees is Leyton Orient on November 16.
Chelsea overcame Norwich City in a game where The Canaries dominated the opening spell taking the lead.
But a succession of missed chances allowed The Blues back into the game and once they got ahead they never let the momentum slip recording an 8-2 win.
In a bad tempered clash Peterborough United beat Leyton Orient 2-1 with the Os having three players sent off.
Brighton recorded a 7-0 win against Southend United.
Would you like to represent Brentford FC in the Football League Trust Futsal League from September 2015?
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: four 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
or email Luis Melville [email protected]