Youth Team goalscorer Jeremiah Kamanzi believes the Under-18s are playing some great football at the moment helped by the sky-high confidence amongst the group.
Jon De Souza’s side made it 16 points from a possible 18 with a 1-0 win away at Crystal Palace in the Under-18 Professional Development League Two South on Saturday morning.
After a run of five wins in six matches and leading the Under-18 PDL Two South by eight points with only a handful of matches remaining Jeremiah believes the mood amongst the Youth Team group is excellent.
The 17-year-old said that confidence is driving performances and results, something evident in the way that The Bees dominated their South London opponents Crystal Palace on Saturday morning.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Jeremiah said: “Confidence is through the roof at the minute.
“You can tell that everybody is happy and enjoying playing with each other.
“We are really getting good results now.
“We just need to keep going.
“We want to get a lot more points on the board and keep playing the football that we are playing.
“We want to keep passing the ball with no fear and then we will see where we end up but at the moment we are playing great football.
“It was a very well deserved win.
“In the first-half we showed that we could get the ball down and play.
“Some of the football we played was exquisite up to the 70th minute.
“After that Crystal Palace wanted to get back into the game and with the players that they put on it showed.
“They had the height advantage and they kept coming into our box but we defended really well to the end and got a great result today.
“I think we were excellent today.
“It was one of our best performances.
“We got the ball down and moved it well.
“You could tell from their reactions that they couldn’t get near it.
“We have to try and keep playing that type of football.
“The message at half-time was to keep going and to keep killing them by passing the football.
“We came back out and did really well with that.”
Jeremiah scored the only goal of the game on Saturday morning as he latched on to Gradi Milenge’s lofted through ball and then beautifully lifted a shot over the advancing Brad Comins in the home goal.
That was Jeremiah’s second goal of the season after he grabbed the opening goal in the 3-2 win over Charlton Athletic last month.
The midfielder was used on the right of a midfield diamond on Saturday and said he enjoys the freedom afforded to him in that role.
Jeremiah said he and his teammates have been encouraged to play with freedom by the Youth Team coaching staff and believes that freedom has really shown through in recent performances.
“The other players give me confidence on the pitch to go and express myself,” said Jeremiah.
“We had been working on forward runs and problem solving in training and today that showed.
“I found I could get in between defenders and look for the ball.
“Bradley Clayton opened up the space and Gradi Milenge played a great ball through that I had to finish for him.
“My only option was to lob the keeper because he came out and made the goal quite small for me.
“I was thinking about trying to put it to the side of him but I ended up putting it over him.
“I enjoyed being out wide on the diamond and I think I am learning a lot as well in terms of positioning and where I have to be when I am out of possession.
“I think I am getting a lot better at it.
I am enjoying my football as you can see.
“The coaches want us to play with freedom and I feel that I can go out and express myself at the moment.
“I think I am playing quite well right now.”
For all Brentford’s bright attacking play against The Eagles they needed to be solid defensively to protect their narrow 1-0 lead from a late Palace bombardment.
Aside from a chance in both halves that Nik Tzanev was out well to save The Bees never looked in any real danger of conceding and that is something Jeremiah believes the whole team take pride in.
“The only downside was that it finished 1-0,” said Jeremiah.
“We should have finished a couple more chances and put the game to bed around the hour.
“With that though we showed another side of our game that is when it gets tough we stick together and managed to get the result.
“As a group of players we really get on with each other.
“The minimum we ask is that we work hard for each other and that showed today as we ground out a result in the final 10 minutes.
“The whole team takes pride in a clean sheet.
“The back four tried really hard today and they organised us well in front of them.”
The win over Crystal Palace meant that the boys had hit a target of picking up 10 points from a tough run of four matches against The Eagles, Colchester United, Swansea City and Charlton Athletic.
Those ten points picked up have seen The Bees advantage in the Under-18 Professional Development League Two South stretch to eight points with only five games remaining.
While Jeremiah and his teammates are pleased to have overcome the challenge of picking up 10 points from their four games they know more important challenges such as progressing to play Development Squad and First-Team football still need to be conquered.
“We are really pleased to have hit our challenge,” said Jeremiah.
“We have new challenges every game and I think the players have taken on these challenges really well.
“We have now got to our 10 points and we are looking forward to the next games to come.
“The main challenge is to get into the first team and at the moment players are staking their claims to do that.
“I am glad that I am doing my fair share too.
“Jon De Souza and Anthony Hayes want to push players on to the first-team and on to the Under-21s.
“Players are staking their claims for that and great performances are coming with that.
“Lee Carsley is really pleased with us at the moment and I think Jon and Anthony have done really well with us.
“They give us the freedom to play and they know we like to pass it.
“We are a dominant team at the moment and results are proving that right now.”