Tuesday, March 25, 2025

NYC Bees Newsletter: April heats up, PLinUSA feature, Red Lion signage

Hi again NYC Bees, after a long international hiatus, we're now down to the final two months of the Premier League season. Despite the lighter schedule of late, we've still had a lot happening in our corner of the Brentford world. Here are a few noteworthy items to get you caught up!

Schedule heats up for April slate
This April, we've got five challenging matchups against an entire lineup that's been jockeying for position among the top half of the Premier League table. We open with a Wednesday afternoon match at Newcastle on April 2, followed by a highly anticipated home clash against Chelsea on Sunday, April 6. The Red Lion will open its doors early for that latter matchup. All five games will be at the pub, located at 151 Bleecker St., in Greenwich Village, so we hope to see you there! See the graphic for our full April itinerary.

More on NYC Bees:
Social: Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | TikTok | X
Media Hub: SlideTackles.com

PLinUSA to feature NYC Bees
Be on the lookout for some more feature coverage of our supporters' group! During our March 8 meet-up for Brentford v. Aston Villa, Two Circles -- the Premier League's marketing agency here in the U.S., which operates the PLinUSA channels -- spoke with about a half dozen of our NYC Bees. The interviews will be part of PLinUSA's Fan Origin series. We'll keep you posted when this footage is released, which should be soon!

NYC Bees Gallery: Brentford disposable camera series
Before the 2024-25 season kicked off, Brentford FC asked us for some pictures from a disposable camera, and the club recently sent us the developed shots. During our international break, we posted a little gallery of the images, taken near the close of the 2023-24 season, from The Red Lion in Greenwich Village.

Permanent Brentford signage at The Red Lion
If you missed either of our March matches, then you have yet to see that we've got some permanent Brentford signage hanging up behind the bar at The Red Lion! Our New Jersey-based supporters are responsible for this wonderful addition: Norm Hale had this plaque/artwork handy, Bruce Muni picked it up, and then he donated it to the pub! The Red Lion hung this up at the start of March, and now it's a component of our home, year-round. Enjoy!

Brentford News & Notes
Road winning streak tops in PL:
We've grown accustomed to savoring the highs and dismissing the lows as Bees fans. Well we've certainly had a couple noteworthy feats of late that stand out in Premier League play. Firstly, Brentford's road winning streak increased to five games following a 2-1 comeback victory over Bournemouth. That winning streak is the highest among all teams in the PL this season! Brentford also earned its 50th Premier League win since its promotion following the 2020-21 Championship campaign. According to Playmaker Stats, "no team has reached their half-century quick than the Bees since 1995."

Surpassing last season's points total: With nine matches remaining this season, Brentford has already eclipsed the previous season's points total in the Premier League. In 2024-25, the club has 41 points in 29 games. By comparison, in 2023-24, the Bees recorded 39 points in 38 games. Matching (or surpassing) our ninth-place, 59-point 2022-23 season will take some doing, but it's still very much a possibility, despite the plethora of injuries and obstacles we've endured over the past couple seasons.

Brentford Women strengthen promotion chances: On March 23, the Brentford Women hosted Bromley at Gtech Community Stadium in a matchup of the top two sides in the London & South-East WFL Division 1 North. Led by Chloe Logie's hat trick, Brentford secured a 4-2 victory in front of 3,604 supporters to improve to a perfect 15-0-0 on the season. Only one team gets promoted from this division, and the Bees have strengthened their chances of this becoming a reality. Fingers crossed that they finish the job; they've already had a memorable campaign!

Season ticket prices remain the same: Brentford announced that season ticket prices will remain frozen for the 2025-26 season. If you're a regular at the Gtech, make sure to renew by April 11 to secure your seat.

Quick hits: We garnered some more national TV coverage in March, appearing at the close of the NBC broadcast on March 8 between Brentford and Aston Villa, followed by a halftime cameo on the USA Network broadcast on March 15 between the Bees and Bournemouth. Use the #MyPLMorning hashtag on social media to try and get your favorite Brentford photos on the NBC and USA Network broadcasts! ... In mid-March, the club announced that Fabio Carvalho would miss up to eight weeks because of a dislocated shoulder. The 22-year-old newcomer has had a bumpy transition with the Bees in 2024-25, posting two goals and an assist in 19 league games. ... Defender Rico Henry was among a handful of first-team players who got some minutes in a 1-0 Brentford win over Primeira Liga side Gil Vicente on March 21. Henry suffered an ACL injury back in September of 2023, and a hamstring injury several months ago delayed his return.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

NYC Bees make halftime spot on USA Network national broadcast

The Brentford FC New York supporters were highlighted during the March 15 match between Brentford and Bournemouth! The NYC Bees made an appearance during the halftime segment of the nationally-televised USA Network broadcast.

Bees fans, if you’d like to try and make a future NBC or USA Network broadcast, use the #MyPLMorning hashtag and you might be highlighted to the masses! 

Saturday, March 8, 2025

NYC Bees pop up on NBC's Brentford-Aston Villa broadcast

The NYC Brentford supporters' group appeared at the tail end of the March 8 broadcast of Brentford v. Aston Villa, televised nationally on NBC!

For any Brentford supporters out there, use the #MyPLMorning hashtag (X is the preferred platform that NBC Sports producers typically check) and maybe you'll wind up on a national broadcast like us!

PLinUSA chats with NYC Bees for upcoming 'Fan Origin' series

NYC Bees' Lev Riley
During the March 8 meet-up at The Red Lion, our NYC Bees took part in some interviews that will be part of the Premier League's American social media and content at #PLinUSA. Two Circles, the marketing agency that runs their channels, spoke with about a half dozen of our supporters in Greenwich Village for an upcoming Fan Origin series piece.

Florida Bee Reggie Grant
The majority of our supporters, as well as well known Floridian Bee Reggie Grant (who was visiting our establishment), participated in this feature. We'll keep you posted on when this rolls out. We are anticipating this to be live sometime in early April.

Big thanks to Thomas Hautmann who interviewed us and proactively set this up, we really appreciate it! More to come!

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Newsletter: March matches, Forever Bees pod debut, road winning streak

Hello NYC Bees, the upcoming month is a shorter one with the first FIFA international window of 2025 breaking up our Premier League play. Here is everything to get you caught up from the past month, and a look ahead to the upcoming stretch!

March schedule at The Red Lion
We have two league matches in March, both in the afternoon, starting with our home game against Aston Villa on March 8. We face Bournemouth on March 15. Both watch events will be taking place at The Red Lion, 151 Bleecker St. We had some behind-the-scenes chatter on the possibility of needing to go to another venue for the March 15 game, but fortunately The Red Lion's private party event over the St. Patrick's Day weekend has been canceled. One thing of note: This is the first stretch where our games will overlap with Six Nations Rugby. We will have our back space and sound, but plan for the possibility of some crowd overlap. Hope you can join us at both watch events! See the graphic for our March itinerary.

Note to UK visitors: The March 15 kickoff listing is four hours behind West London (not five hours) because of the USA daylight saving time.

More on NYC Bees:
Social: Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | TikTok | X
Media hub: Slidetackles.com

NYC Bees' Abhi Goyal debuts on 'Forever Bees' pod
We were thrilled to hear from NYC Bee Abhi Goyal who made his show debut on the USA-based Across the Seas but Forever Bees podcast on Feb. 6! Abhi shared his back story on becoming a Bees supporter and chatted Brentford football with co-hosts Tim Searls and Greville Waterman. Abhi followed up with some sidekick duties during Forever Bees' Feb. 18 show and was back in the mix on Feb. 27 following our Everton draw. Earlier this season, Abhi and wife Alison Roberts were on the Don't Know Much About Football podcast, so it's nice to see our NYC Brentford supporters expanding their media outreach! Great job!

If anyone else is looking to participate in the bevy of shows out there to share their Bees thoughts, contact us anytime and we'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

Bees extend road winning streak to 4
Brentford enters March with a four-game winning streak on the road, marking the club's most successful away stretch since its rise to the Premier League. The Bees' most recent road feat was a dominant 4-0 victory at Leicester City on Feb. 21. Before this vastly improved road run, Brentford had 8 losses, 2 draws and 0 wins away from Gtech this season. It should be noted, though, that every road win has been against a team in the bottom half of the PL table. Brentford's next road test is on March 15 at Bournemouth, a team that has at times flirted with a top-5 spot in the standings this season.

Brentford News & Notes
Damsgaard, Mbeumo maintain elite goal involvement rates:
If you're keeping tabs on where some of our guys rank among the top league goal involvement stats, naturally Mikkel Damsgaard and Bryan Mbeumo are continuing to produce among the PL's elite this season. Damsgaard added two assists at Leicester to up his total to 10 this season. He is only behind Liverpool's Mo Salah (16) for the league lead. Mbeumo has 15 goals scored, which currently ranks fifth in the league.

Cochrane joins England coaching staff: Brentford assistant coach Justin Cochrane has been added to the England National Team coaching staff under manager Thomas Tuchel. This is a part-time role, so fortunately he will continue his Brentford duties with manager Thomas Frank. Brentford director of football Phil Giles: "The exposure to different coaches, players and opponents will no doubt be positive for Justin's ongoing development as a coach, as we envisage him being here with us for many more years to come."

Brentford Women return to Gtech in March: With a break in the men's schedule because of international football, that opened a window for the Brentford Women to make their second appearance this season at Gtech Community Stadium on March 23, when they host Bromley. The match is a significant one as both teams are vying for a coveted promotion spot, which goes to the lone winner of the London & South-East WFL Division 1 North.

Quick hits: The folks at Premier League Fanzone brought us back for their Feb. 21 show to help preview Brentford at Leicester, live on Peacock. It was our sixth NYC Bees appearance there this season. ... We wrapped up our second season on the Shades of Blue Network. I hopped on their LIT Stream on Jan. 30 to talk about the transfer deadline, clubs undervaluing potential sales of Brentford players and more. I'm sure we'll stay involved with this Manchester City-focused outlet in 2025-26! ... We made a couple of cameos during halftime of Brentford's nationally televised matches on USA Network, first on the Brentford-Tottenham matchup on Feb. 2, followed by Leicester-Brentford on Feb. 21! Use the #MyPLMorning hashtag on social media (ideally X) to try and get your favorite Brentford photos on the NBC and USA Network broadcasts.

Suggestions, Comments, Feedback
If you ever have any thoughts, feel free to email (brentfordnyc@gmail.com) or chat with me anytime! #COYB!

Charlie