Ole Gunnar Spolskjaer may be setting the Premier League alight at Manchester United but he isn’t the only Norwegian international currently having an impact on football in England. Closer to home in Brent, another Norwegian international is having an equally impressive impact at grass roots level. Stig Vik Nedrebo was capped by Norway at U16 and U17 levels and now studying with UCFB based at Wembley Stadium. Stig is working with the Brent Schools’ FA Under-14 representative team. On Saturday he was supported in the dugout by fellow Norwegian and UCFB coach Kjell Sung and Chris Ampofo.
The Brent side is a new team assembled by veteran Brent and QPR coach Fitzroy Benson. The side had their first game since the squad was relaunched after losing 9 players who had been signed to professional academies. The new group hit the ground running with a resounding 5-2 victory against West London at Capital City Academy.
Brent had the perfect start when after 2 minutes Diontae Smith burst in from the left to slot the ball home. Soon after this, debutant Khalid Jabir outpaced his marker in the box and was bundled over for a penalty . Albi Alexander stepped up and coolly curled the ball into the bottom left hand corner.
West London then fought back and counter-attacked only for Brent goalkeeper Ahmed Al Abdul Rasoul to make a superb reflex save. The visitors weren’t to be denied; despite excellent defending for long spells from skipper Stanley Willis, Sefan Guluta and Seeyar Bahadurshah, West London scored a well-worked goal to make the score 2-1. Brent responded immediately. Don Qamili released Alexander in midfield and his inch-perfect pass found Jabir who outpaced his marker before launching an unstoppable drive into the net.
West London fought back again and scored to make it 3-2. By now, the match was end to end stuff. Brent’s Bradley Morrison was a constant threat driving down the right wing, linking with Asher Samuels as both teams battled desperately for the all-important next goal. Arash Sohrabi and his midfield partner Ahmed Hassan began to dominate the centre of the pitch. Brent were awarded a free kick on the halfway line. Qamili took it quickly with a flighted crossfield pass to Smith who obliged with a classy finish, jinking between two defenders before smashing the ball into the net to make it 4-2. Brent’s fifth goal Gezim Prebreza combined well with Rafi Amblin, who slipped the ball to Ahmed Hassan. Hassan found Sohrabi whose clever reverse pass found Diontae Smith who completed his hat-trick with a wonderful finish, outsprinting the defence and shooting into the bottom corner to make complete the scoring.
Coach Stig Nedrebo remarked “As a fresh new group of players, this was a really positive experience for them and myself. They executed the messages from the sidelines really well and fought for each other to the end.”
Squad: Albi Alexander, Ahmed Hassan, Gezim Prebreza, Stefan Guluta, Dion Qamili, Seeyar Bahadurshah, Khalid Jabir, Rafi Amblin, Bradley Morrison, Ahmed Al Abdul Rasoul, Arash Sohrabi, Dointae Smith, Stanley Willis (Capt), Asher Samuels.