Brentford U21

The academy shut, and what replaced it in May 2016 was a B team built on the players other clubs had let go — released academy boys, lads picked up from non-league. The parent club, founded on 16 October 1889, had run a reserve side since 1900 and a development squad after 2011.

The model has produced first-team footballers. Mads Roerslev and Marcus Forss both came through it, and Ryan Trevitt after them.

The B team beat Blackburn Rovers U21 2–1 to take the Premier League Cup in 2022–23, then won the Professional Development League national title in 2023–24 and again in 2024–25.

Home is Wheatsheaf Park in Staines-upon-Thames, a 3,002-capacity ground shared with a non-league landlord, though the bigger fixtures move to the Gtech Community Stadium — the 17,250-seat ground the first team moved into in 2020 after 116 years at Griffin Park. Red and white stripes, black shorts; The Bees, a nickname that came out of a misheard chant in the 1890s.

The fixtures that matter most are the local ones.