Saturday 17th November 2018 @ Boldmere St. Michael’s FC

Birmingham Primary Schools’ FA Autumn Cup

Team: Monia, Millie, Keeley, Rihanna, Savannah, Octavia, Latia and Rosie

Le’Jae, Ashante, Damilola, Tiana, Jessica, Megan, Millie W and Keira

In nippy temperatures and following a flood light failure, the girls picked up the baton from the boys, who were crowned West Midlands 7-a-side champions earlier in the day, and ran with it.

Both teams were superb all evening. The black team were tenacious in the tackle and strong in defence, conceding in only one of their games, while the gold team were sharp in front of goal, bagging 11 goals in their games.

Both teams did us proud. All of the girls were a credit to Erdington and Saltley.

With a little bit more luck, the black team would have bagged a few more goals, having matched everyone they squared up against throughout the evening. Yet despite battling courageously, they simply couldn’t get the ball over the line as many times as their play deserved.

The gold team finished the group stage unbeaten and in first place with two wins and a draw from their three matches. This set up a semi-final against a strong Kings Norton team. Despite labouring slightly in their final group game, the girls recapture their form and won the last-four tie 4-0.

This earned them a place in the final against a Sutton Coldfield side who had impressed all in attendance in their ascent to the showpiece game.

Despite falling behind to a Sutton goal, the first and only goal they conceded all evening, the girls bounced back and levelled the match. With both sides going for it with great gusto, there was simply no separating the two teams after extra-time. As is always the case with BPSFA competitions, this meant the title was shared – and rightly so.

The girls have started the season in superb form, winning two tournaments from two and also picking up great wins and super performances in a trio of representative games.

Well done girls!

Up The Ton!