Saturday 19th October 2012 @ Braemar Road
Erdington and Saltley 3-2 Aston
Team- Dermot; Callum, Michael; Amari, Ramello, Marc, George, Ethan; Rayhaan Sub: Leyton
Goals- Ramello x2 Amari
Man of the match- Amari
A week after rolling over against Brierley Hill and Dudley, the boys were asked to roll up their sleeves and dig dip. This was even more vital in light of the late withdrawals of Shilo and Ty through illness and injury respectively. Losing two key players like that would have broke lesser teams, but The Ton are made of tougher stuff and simply got on with it.
Aston are our local rivals and this is the fixture that I look forward to most, so the victory is all the more sweeter! The game started fairly evenly, with both teams playing some super passing football. I was pleased to see this as we had a very important guest in the crowd! Brian Jones, the manager of the Erdington district during the 80s and 90s, was in attendance to watch The Ton for the first time since I took over the team last year. With the game fairly even, The Ton were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area for handball. Ethan stepped up and planted the ball on the keeper who could do nothing but parry the ball into the path of Ramello who poked the ball into the net to give The Ton a one goal lead. However, it was short lived when Aston were awarded a penalty and duly slotted it away to leave the game evenly balanced going into the break.
The second half started with Ramello causing Aston all sorts of problems with his blistering pace. If there is a faster player in the league, I’m Usane Bolt! The Ton restored their lead via a goal that won’t win any prizes for footballing beauty but it was a goal nonetheless! Amari found the ball at his feet on the edge of his area, and played a long, accurate ball forward catching Aston on the break. Ramello charged through, cushioning the ball with his head before calmly slotting the ball to the keeper’s right. However, once again Aston pulled level and once again The Ton had to dig deep into their reserves. After sitting out much of the second half, Amari came back on with 7 minutes to go and grabbed the winning goal. Yet again Ramello’s pace ripped Aston apart when he dribbled down the right and evaded the challenges of two Aston players, eventually crossing for Amari to fire home from three yards. Three goals and three points!
I’m incredibly proud of the whole team, for many reasons! Rayhaan and Leyton stepped in at short notice and performed admirably. Ramello once again caused the opposition defence a real nightmare. Marc stepped into midfield to shore things up and Michael led by example in defence. There is genuinely too many positives to mention! My man of the match choice was an exceptionally difficult decision but I’ve given it to Amari due to the amazing effort that he put in, both going forward and in defence. One incident sticks in my mind. After losing the ball in the Aston box, he sprinted all the way back to our area and eventually won the ball back. It was effort like this that was missing last week but that was in abundance all over the pitch this week.
Well done lads, I couldn’t be any prouder to be your manager. I am one lucky man!
Enjoy your games tomorrow and see you all next week!
Up The Ton!
Erdington and Saltley Primary Schools' FA 