Reece Cole was delighted to sign his first professional contract with The Bees earlier this month and is now targeting playing Premier League football with Brentford. The midfielder, who turns 18 this Wednesday, agreed a Development Squad deal earlier this month after completing his two-year scholarship at Jersey Road.
Speaking to Bees Player after the Under-21s defeat to Charlton Athletic on Monday Reece said his next aim was to help the club push towards its aim of Premier League football. “I am over the moon to sign,” said Reece. “It is a great club to be at. Everyone is going forward and everyone has aspirations to be in the Premier League. That is where we all want to be as players and staff. The standards are going up all the way through the club from Under-9s to Under-16s and it is a great club to be at.”
Reece has been a major part of the Development Squad this season making 13 appearances for Flemming Pedersen’s side. The experienced Danish coach took over the Under-21s earlier this year and Reece said he has really enjoyed working with him and feels he has learned a lot during their short time together.
“It has been a good experience for me playing with bigger boys,” said Reece. “Today a few of the Charlton Athletic team had played first-team football so it is good for me to see where I am at compared to them. It is a very high standard we are trying to reach but with the coaches help we can get there. I have learned a lot on the tactical side of the game from Flemming and it has been great. He is focused on the tactical and positional side of the game and I have really enjoyed that.”
The Bees looked like they were heading for a point at VCD Athletic against The Addicks on Monday until Emmanuel Onariase brought down Brandon Hanlan in the dying seconds and Josh Umerah converted from the spot. Earlier Jan Holldack had scored his 11th of the season to cancel out Ademola Lookman’s stunning opener for the table-topping hosts. Reece admitted he was hugely disappointed to lost in that fashion especially given how hard the team had battled in difficult conditions.
“It’s not the greatest way to lose a game of football but with Charlton we have now lost three games against them in the space of two months,” said Reece. “A point was probably fair enough but there were little things during the game like not winning our battles in the first-half. First-half we couldn’t really suss them out because they were moving around so much. After half-time myself, Jan Holldack and Zain Westbrooke dealt with it until late on in the second-half. We started brightly in the second-half and could have got a goal but it didn’t drop for us. We like to play out from the back and build-up play and they were hard conditions to do that today.”