For 14 Scholars representing Brentford Football Club and Brentford FC Community Sports Trust a little bit of history was made as they made their debut in The Football League Trust Futsal Festival at the very impressive Birmingham International @Futsal Arena last Wednesday, September 10.
Luis Melville and Martyn Hall - who are delivering the Futsal and BTEC Level Three National Extended Diploma in Sport over the next two years at The Griffin Park Learning Zone, with the Futsal training taking place at Osterley Sports Centre - set off at the very early time of 6.45am from Griffin Park.
The Futsal BTEC now has well over 50 clubs involved and featured on Sky Sports SOCCER AM last season.
The course is aimed at students who have achieved a minimum of four GCSE’s (grades A-C) including Maths and English.
Not having played Futsal before is not a barrier to being part of the course.
With 12.5 hours education and three Futsal specific training sessions a week plus a regular league programme this is the ideal course for someone who lives for sport.
Throw in the chance to gain a Beginner’s Guide to Futsal course and a FA Level One Football qualification with work experience for the Trust and you have a week like no other for someone who wants a career in sport.
Back to Birmingham and the boys arrived in time for their team photographs with individual shots taken as well for the FL Trust website.
A warm up and the both Brentford teams were ready to kick off the first of five games each.
Opponents included Cardiff City, Leicester City, Milton Keynes Dons, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Shrewsbury Town, Nottingham Forest, Newport County and Premier League Chelsea.
Luis, who has been taking the training was able to pass on his previous coaching knowledge gained from The FA National Futsal League to the boys and they put on some very creditable performances.
Luis said: "There is no doubt that this group of players have demonstrated that they have the technical ability and in the short time we have been together have been able to transfer the knowledge from training into the game.
"It bodes well for the future."
Martyn, who is leading on the teaching, added: "For the boys this is a great chance to take what they have learned in the classroom onto a Futsal court and be able to use some of those experiences and relate them back to their assignments."
The high physical demands of the game meant that while each team were allotted 60 minutes playing time no more than 45 minutes was played by each player.
The main differences of Futsal to normal five-a-side is that there is no playing off the walls but to a lined court and the goals are only three metres by two metres.
The size four ball defines the game with its low bounce ensuring that the ball spends a lot of the time on the floor.
Good quick decision making and execution of technique is what marks out the best Futsal players.
Of the ten matches played by both the teams The Bees won eight and drew one with one loss.
Luis added: "I was impressed with the level of performance at the start and how they took the lessons learned from each game into the next one and played some excellent Futsal given how few sessions they have done."
With the matches over the boys were delighted with their performances and the mini-bus ride along with a stop at a service station for a Subway helped the journey home pass a lot quicker.
The scholars start their second week already settled into the education programme which is aimed at them achieving the equivalent of three A-levels.
They have already bonded well as group and we look forward to introducing them to a packed Griffin Park very soon and that you will all follow them as the season unfolds.
The first league game takes place at the world class SportHouse Arena in Barking on Wednesday, September 14.
Follow the team via twitter: @BFCFutsalClub
Back Row: Abas Ali, Mason Roseboom, Louis Dailey, Alfie Hipwell, Sakariye Shire, Frankie Finn & Connor Miller
Front Row: Tommy Driscoll, Bradley Scott, Humzah Karim, Charlie Rose, Kyle O’Neill, Harman Sandhu & Azhan Iqbal