Kyreece Lisbie: Rejection, Brentford B pathway and EFL breakthrough at Colchester | OneFootball

Sitting down to chat to former Brentford B winger Kyreece Lisbie, it feels like a lifetime ago that he was torturing defenders for the young Bees.

In reality, it’s only been 10 months since Lisbie left west London to join Sky Bet League Two side Colchester United and, in that time, the 22-year-old has made a significant impact at his new club.

When asked to reflect on his time with Brentford, which began by signing with Neil MacFarlane’s B team in July 2022, Lisbie speaks glowingly of the club and, despite encountering tough moments while with the Bees, only has happy memories to share.

“My time at Brentford was amazing, I don’t have a bad word to say. From the coaching staff to the players, the way everyone made you feel welcome, it’s like a family club at Brentford,” says Lisbie.

“That was a dream come true at that moment, especially from my journey before that with all of the rejections, people saying I’m not good enough.

“There were a lot of clubs that I experienced rejection at, so, for Brentford to turn around and say yes, it was like 'Wow, this is it, this is the moment you dream of as a little boy signing a professional contract at a Premier League club’.

“I’ve still got close friends that I speak to daily now from Brentford, so it’s something that I’ll always be grateful for.

“The development that I had under Neil and Saunds [Sam Saunders] was just amazing. The player that walked into the building to the player that left, it’s nowhere near the same.”

The transition to men’s football has seemingly been an easy one for Lisbie, with the winger scoring seven goals and adding six assists across all competitions in 26 matches to date this season.

He has been forced to fight for his place in the line-up, however, which is not too dissimilar to the work he has had to put into every step of his career to get to the position he finds himself in today.

That hard work has come through a journey of highs and lows, including being rejected from Colchester as a youngster, being released from Leyton Orient and Watford’s Academies and time spent with non-league outfit Cray Valley.

“I went on trial at Colchester at a very young age, around 15 or 16. I was told I wasn’t good enough, so it was a full circle moment for the family when I signed for Colchester first team,” he explains.

“When I first came here, I was struggling to get into the team, and then I went out on loan, trying to play men’s football, so it didn’t go the way I wanted it to initially when I first left Brentford.

“I started off this season on the bench. In our first game of the season, we played Tranmere at home and I came on and scored a screamer. Then, the next game after that, I scored again against Shrewsbury.

“I wanted to show people, the manager and everyone that I’m good enough to be starting and making an impact from minute one, so that was the initial frustration at the start of the season.

“Eventually, I did get my starting opportunity and I haven’t really looked back since.”

The ability to fight through adversity has been a staple of Lisbie’s career, evident from when he signed a professional contract with Brentford.

Injuries prevented Lisbie from showcasing his talent in his early days at the club, and his patience was tested as he suffered continual setbacks.

“It was really tough. Obviously, I was going through my growing stages at Brentford and I suffered a lot of knee pain that kept me out of a lot of minutes that I wanted to play,” he says.

“I had surgery and spoke to a lot of specialists, and no one seemed to know what the answer was, but we got there in the end, towards the end of my career at Brentford.

“It was all about learning, patience, growing and getting stronger in the gym, allowing me to be the player that I am.

“I was really happy with how the physios treated me at Brentford because, with the injuries that I had, it wasn’t easy and I was sidelined for a while. They were really good to me and helped me get back on the pitch doing what I love.”

Once on the pitch consistently, Lisbie shined and it was clear that higher levels of football awaited him as he continued to develop.

Across the first half of the 2024/25 campaign with Brentford B, Lisbie scored eight goals and registered three assists in 18 games, with Colchester wasting no time in making a permanent move for the winger.

The impact of MacFarlane and Saunders was not lost on Lisbie, and he thanked the pair for their pursuit of developing his game.

“It was really important how obsessed they were with the development of players,” says Lisbie. "Sometimes you can enter an Under-21s environment and all the coaches care about is winning but, for Neil and Saunds, their drive and their ambition was to see players develop.

“That’s what the whole B-team programme is about: seeing young players come through the academy and develop into first-team players.

“Sometimes the U21s is about developing players into their first team, but Brentford have a bigger picture of not only developing players into their first team, but into the EFL too.

“That’s why they’ve seen so many success stories, because of the care that the coaches take with the players, developing them into young footballers.”

Lisbie is the latest of those success stories, joining a long list of players to leave the B-team set-up and build a career in men’s football.

The accessibility to first-team players while at Brentford is a key reason for his success, Lisbie said.

“My time at Brentford... I describe it as being in the waiting process, learning everything, becoming a sponge with all the first-team players around,” he explains.

“When people ask me, ‘How was it at Brentford?’, I say how accessible you are to the first team, you walk past all of these big superstar names that are very humble.

“We would go on tour and play men’s teams and we would play cups against non-league teams, so there wasn’t that shock when I first made that jump because it came quite naturally to me.

“Just that environment that Brentford created, playing against first teams, it made the jump a lot smoother for me, so I’m very grateful for that.”

Now Lisbie is carrying on the family name at Colchester, a club his father Kevin was top goalscorer at for two seasons.

His brother Kaion is a member of the U21s at the club and recently made his first team debut in a 2-0 EFL Trophy win over Fulham U21s, while Lisbie’s twin brother Kyrell is impressing at Peterborough United.

“Life’s really good, obviously playing my first full season in the EFL with Colchester and things are going really well at the minute,” said Lisbie.

“Family-wise as well, Kyrell’s with Peterborough scoring goals, my little brother is with Colchester as well, so it feels like it’s all a bit FIFA Be a Pro mode at the minute!

“Kaion made his debut and I actually came off for him, so I was lucky enough to welcome him onto the pitch. That was a really nice moment for the family.

“Just looking at his name on the back of the shirt and seeing him around the training ground, it’s a really nice feeling to see your little brother in and around the first team with you.

“We all started off our journey together on the same training pitches working with my dad, so it’s a very proud moment for our family.”

Moving forward, proving himself right and playing with “passion and joy” is what Lisbie is hoping to do.

“I want to just keep on proving myself right," he asserts. "A lot of the time, when I was growing up, my mentality was, ‘I want to prove everyone wrong’.

“Over time, as I’ve matured as a footballer, it’s been about proving myself right and, every day, just enjoying football.

“A lot of the boys get onto me for the way that I celebrate with the fans and the passion that I show - maybe sometimes it’s not normal - but I’ve just got that extra buzz and motivation and that’s just because of the journey that I’ve had and how much I love the game.

“The passion that I show on the pitch is because of all of the rejection that I had growing up, all of the setbacks, all of the injuries, all of the times people said I wasn’t good enough, it’s all just been bottled up and, every time I step on the pitch, it just opens up.

“I just want to keep playing with that passion and joy and see where it takes me.”