Midland Challenge Cup @ Heartlands Academy
Saturday 13th February 2016

Erdington and Saltley 10 – 2 Gloucester

Team: Rob, Sam, Kye, Diago, Rio, Cameron P, Kane, Tion, Pharrelle, Cameron E and Oakley

Goals: Kane x 3, Cameron P x 2, Cameron E x 2, Pharrelle x 3 and Sam

Man of the Match: Kane – what better way to celebrate your 11th Birthday, than by bagging your 37 goal of the season?

On a historic day when the girls and boys played on the same morning, at the same venue for the first time ever, the boys put on a performance of historic magnitude. It was a brilliant performance from start to finish and capped off a fine week, coming only 24 hours after paying off Jersey 2016 in full!

Much like two weeks ago against Sutton Coldfield, the game couldn’t have started any better for us, with Cameron P smashing the ball home one minute into the game. The build up play to our opening goal set our stall out for the remainder of the game, with the boys playing the ball from back to front with pace and invention. Within another few minutes we were two goals up after Cameron P bagged himself a brace. Fully in control of the game, we switched off and conceded a goal from a long free-kick. We should have dealt with it, but instead allowed the ball to bounce through to the Gloucester forward who cooly slotted the ball home to halve the deficit. Game on. However the boys regrouped and scored a third seconds before the ref blew his whistle for the end of the first third.

Now in control of the game, The Ton piled on the pressure during the second third and added to their three goals via Pharrelle, who added to the goal that he scored during the first third, and Cameron E. After celebrating his 10th birthday yesterday, the Marsh Hill sharp-shooter christened his new boots by grabbing his 8th u11s goal, to add to the 14 that he has scored for the u10s.

Despite being 5-1 to the good, we demanded more from the boys and asked them to move the ball quicker, rather than unnecessarily holding on to it. We made a number of changes by switching Kane from midfield to up front, Cameron P from the wing into the centre of midfield, Cameron E from up front on to the wing and by bringing Rio back into the fold. These changes seemed to give the lads a boost and resulted in them raising their effort levels. Adding five goals to their tally, the boys capped off a great team performance! Captain Kane grabbed a quick-fire hat-trick, whilst Sam scored for the second consecutive week and Cameron E accurately slotted in a second for himself.

Whilst the boys deserved their ten goals, the Gloucester boys (as ever) deserved a lot of credit. Their attitude was great throughout, their manners were impeccable and they represented their great district with distinction. We look forward to meeting up again in Jersey and hope the Sat Nav got them home safely!

What next for The Ton?

There is no game next weekend, but after that it is back to West Midlands League action, as we take on Solihull on Saturday 27th February.

Have a great week off school boys! You deserve it!

Up The Ton!