Connor Wolfheimer: Young Bees ready for Norwich City

While he hasn’t played in an FA Youth Cup game in his career to date, Brentford Under-18 goalkeeper Connor Wolfheimer is no stranger to the competition.

He has been involved in FA Youth Cup runs in the last two seasons, once with Kingstonian and last year with the young Bees, however injury and selection meant he did not feature.

He is eyeing a debut in the competition come Monday night, when Brentford travel to face Norwich City Under-18s at Carrow Road in the third round (7pm kick-off).

“Personally, I feel very much in form, I think my season has been performance-wise a big step up from last season,” said Wolfheimer.

“The game against Wimbledon was just an example of that, of the backline just throwing in everything and then when we went down to 10 men, everyone just working together to get the clean sheet.”

Lydia Bedford’s side faced Tottenham at this stage of last year's competition. Training 2-1 after 65 minutes, Brentford were reduced to 10 players before Spurs secured a 5-1 victory.

While full focus is on Monday night, Wolfheimer said the Bees are hopeful of going on a run in the competition.

“If we win that game we’re through to the next round and that’s what counts. It’s obviously our aim and what we want to achieve, but it’s not the final so we still have a lot to do afterwards,” Wolfheimer continued.

“We’ll give our all to try and win that game and then go into the next round.”

The young Bees have produced some impressive performances on the road this season, a 2-1 win over Coventry City and 3-2 victory at being Bournemouth notable highlights.

Wolfheimer said the side will look to draw on these performances come Monday night.

“I think this season’s been very up and down with results, but also performances. We’re capable of winning on the road, we’re capable of putting up performances when it matters,” he explained.

“It’s just about carrying that through. We had a big game against Wimbledon where we had to win and we kept a clean sheet, so we’re able to perform in big games.

“If it has to come down to our fight and our mentality to win the game, then we’ll be ready to give it everything.”