Saturday 4th May 2019 @ St. Andrews, Birmingham City FC
English Schools’ FA 7-a-side Final
Team: Cory, Kian, Jeval, Romaeo, Tavani, Callam, Daniel, Kyran, Toby and Markie
Man of the Match: Daniel
D 0-0 vs. Sheffield
L 2-0 vs. Thurrock
D 0-0 vs. Plymouth
Seven. Sept. Sette. Seite. Sete. Hepta. Sapta. No matter how you say it, seven is not our favourite number right now.
On a day when one goal would have transformed our fortunes, we found our shooting boots thwarted by the woodwork on no less than seven occasions during our three games. Throw into the mix a few efforts cleared off the line and you start to realise it wasn’t our day.
At the start of the finals, we said that we needed to walk away without any regrets and this is exactly what we did. While we might not of achieved our target of lifting the national title, we know we gave it our very best. We worked tirelessly as a team but simply didn’t have any luck. There was nothing more that we could have done. Nothing. For that reason, we have no regrets.
Superb performances against Plymouth and Sheffield would have yielded at least six goals on another day – more than enough to progress out of the group. Alas, despite peppering both goals, we walked away with zero next to our name in the goals scored column.
Even in our solitary defeat to Thurrock, we played well for large parts and yes, you’ve guessed it, we hit the post through a thunderous Markie strike with the scores at 0-0.
Tales of each performance are littered with stories of hard luck, yet one thing was clear, we were not out of our depth and on another day could have achieved so much more. As it is, we reached the national final of the ESFA 7-a-side after lifting the Birmingham and West Midlands titles and navigating our way through the Midlands round. We made history just by being there. We have had an amazing season and done so much to be proud of.
The boys were superb and we are all so proud of them!
Well done boys.
Up The Ton!
Erdington and Saltley Primary Schools' FA 