Back in December, Brentford’s fixture against Bolton Wanderers was earmarked as a Christmas Community Match. The game, which saw more than 600 tickets given to 11 community projects, was part of Brentford’s ongoing commitment to community initiatives. In partnership with Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, participants from the Trust’s health, education and disability projects enjoyed the Bees 1-0 victory over the Trotters.

Girls from our grassroots coaching programme and children from our disability sport projects are just some of the participants who benefited from the community-themed match. And former Brentford player Allan Cockram returned to Griffin Park with young people from his Brentford Penguins programme, which provides weekly football sessions for children with Down’s Syndrome. All participants congregated in St Paul’s Park before the game and had the exciting opportunity to meet B Team players Nikolaj Kirk and Jaakko Oksanen.

Allan Steele, B Team Assistant Coach, said: “Events like this show how important the community and the Community Sports Trust are to us. The Trust plays a very positive role with what they do, not only what they do in the public eye, but behind the scenes and on matchday. The players really enjoy their time working with in the community and hopefully this is a relationship which will only grow.”

Pupils from the Trust’s football BTEC programme used the match to celebrate the completion of their National Citizens Service project.

Bradley Rance,  who is a pupil on the programme, said: “It was a fantastic atmosphere at Griffin Park and a great experience seeing Brentford players in a professional setting. Our National Citizens Service helped me overcome my fears and made me closer to the students on my BTEC – I can’t think of a better way to celebrate us finishing the course than seeing Brentford play!”

The Trust’s National Citizens Service project offers 15-17 year-olds a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only better themselves, but to make a real difference in their local community. The NCS project is just one of the many projects the Trust offers to the local community.

Lee Doyle, Chief Executive of Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, said: “It was tremendous that so many of our community projects benefited from Bolton’s Christmas Community match; both Brentford FC and the Community Sports Trust are committed to making football accessible and enjoyable for all.”

For more information about Brentford FC Community Sports Trust visit  www.brentfordfccst.com