Saturday 14th March 2015 @ Timberley Primary School

East Birmingham 1 – 7 Erdington and Saltley

Team – Harvey, Shaun, Brandon, Kruize, Jermaine, Marc, Kane, Troy, Shilo, Sam and Hayden

Goals – Troy x 5, Kane and Shilo

With the Llamas watching on and the chickens clucking in approval, The Ton played some great football on a very tight pitch. With space at a premium, the boys had to pass their way out of trouble as dribbling was almost impossible at times. However despite being used to the vast open space of Heartlands of late, the lads adapted well and took the lead early on. As he did all morning, Troy swept up a rebound following a save from the agile East keeper, before tucking it away after ten minutes. Next up was Shilo. Jermaine picked the ball up on the left and played the ball forward to Shilo. The St. Matthew’s pupil had the East defender tight against his back but superbly allowed the ball to roll past him before spinning and sprinting away from the stranded defender. Through on goal, there was no mistaking what he was going t0 do…score! Next up was Kane, who was captain for the day. The Hodge Hill star scooped up another rebound and finished expertly to give The Ton a three goal lead at half time.

We told the lads to step up their efforts as they’d got a little sloppy during the closing stages of the first half. They did this brilliantly during the second thirty, with Kane and Marc (wasn’t it great to have him back!) bossed the centre of the pitch tremendously. Out wide, Kruize, Hayden and Jermaine were causing the East players no end of problems, whilst at the back, Harvey, Brandon and Shaun (and then Sam) adapted to the new formation like a duck to water. However, the second half belonged to Marsh Hill pupil Troy. The Birmingham City schemer added four goals to the one he netted during the first half. Five fine goals! What a performance!

The most pleasing thing about this performance was the fact that we could have scored more after creating lots of great chances. The East goalkeeper deserves a lot of praise for his brave shot stopping, whilst all of the East lads should be commended for never giving up. Nevertheless we were excellent today and produced some mouth-watering attacking football. It was also great to see the lads cope easily with two defenders at the back, rather than the usual three defenders. Plus after being offside 67 times during the first thirty, we weren’t offside once during the second half. This shows great progress and illustrates how well the lads listened to our instructions.

Well done lads, we couldn’t be prouder! What a morning! What a team!

Man of the Match – Troy: After scoring five goals it would have been harsh to give it to anyone else!

Up The Ton!