Jayden Ward – Captain of Erdington and Saltley.
Our manager said it would be a tough game and BOY was he right. Within the first 10 minutes South Birmingham were 1 – 0 up through some skilful play down the right wing. About 10 minutes later they doubled their advantage because we could not clear our lines after their winger put a juicy ball in the box.
With 1 minute left in the first half Trey showed a great burst of pace and the defence could not tackle him, then their defender clumsily stuck out his foot and tripped up Trey. The ref had no choice but to signal for a penalty – and he did. Joshua Subhan stepped up confidently and placed it into the bottom left corner and halved the deficit. We went into half time on an up after our goal just before the break with the score being 2 – 1 to South Birmingham.
We started the second half brightly with Darrelle’s cross finding Trey and the diligent midfielder narrowly missed the target. We had a free kick and it was fired at the keeper and he spilled it so Zane collected the second ball and scored! Like our manager said “It’s the second ball that counts.” It was now 2 – 2 and we had the momentum.
It was a dramatic last 10 minutes as South Birmingham hit the woodwork twice and after that Alex pulled off a great rally of saves and was finally beaten by a low driven shot into the bottom left corner. But did we give up? Of course we didn’t! We attacked hard and earned a penalty through a handball. Josh Subhan stepped up, hit in the same place – but this time the keeper saved it.
South Birmingham started to attack us and Michael kept us in the game thanks to some goal saving tackles. But then they made it 4 – 2 after a goalmouth scramble and they volleyed it into the bottom left corner. But we still didn’t give up. We had one last attack and they dealt with it. It was full time. After an exciting game it was all over. We lost 4 – 2 but we are improving week by week. Let’s go out to win the tournament on Saturday lads!!
Captain’s MOM: Michael
Erdington and Saltley Primary Schools' FA 