Away to Gloucester Primary Schools’ – Saturday 12th January

It’s fast approaching…the historic game against Gloucester Primary Schools’ will represent the first meeting between the two associations since the start of time!

However, there is a slight change to the original plan and I hope that it won’t cause any problems. I had originally hoped to drive my school’s mini-bus down to the game but I haven’t been able to complete my mini-bus training. Therefore it’ll be a case of all coming together and sending a convoy down to the game. I know there may be one or two who don’t drive or can’t make it to the game, however I am sure we can sort it out between us all. It’s such a great opportunity for the lads to sample a real away game and our hosts are really looking forward to welcoming us with open arms.

Bernard Day (Sutton Coldfield manager) assures me that it takes just over an hour to get there as they visit them annually and he speaks very highly of the whole experience.

The provisional plan will be to meet at Braemar (if car sharing is needed) at 8am and leave in time to arrive at Gloucester for 9:45am. Kick off is pencilled in for 10:20am. The Ton team will then be fed and watered by our generous hosts in time to head home at about 12:30pm. Home in time for 1:30pm – 2:00pm.

We’ll talk about on Saturday when we play Aston but I hope between us all we’ll more than cope without the use of a mini-bus.

 

Up the Ton!

Captain’s Blog – We’re in a strong position at the half way stage

I have recently looked at the league table and have identified that we are in a strong position because we are two points behind Aston and we have a game in hand. We are  also four points behind Harborne with one game in hand. So if we win our next game against Aston we will be one point ahead of them with one game in hand, so we could possibly be four points ahead of them. If we beat Harborne and win at least six out of our seven league games we can finish in the top four consequently we can contest the district shield. If we get through to the final we will play it at Bodymoore Heath (Aston Villa’s training ground.) So remember we are in a strong position.

Up the Ton!!!

 

Jayden

It’s been a while . . .

Hi all,

following the heartbreak of the enforced winter break, I’ve finally found the strength to log on and write a few words! I’ve been lost for a few weeks now without the district! It keeps me out of trouble if nothing else! Plus, we all wanted a chance to put right the mistakes from the Aston game. Ah well, they’ll be plenty of opportunities in the new year. The rest will hopefully serve us well and we’ll be raring to go in January!

 

Well now that we find ourselves at the half way point of the season, I think it’s as good a time as any to spend a moment or two reflecting.

I genuinely believe the first half of the season has been a huge success, especially considering Erdington and Saltley was dead and buried for a number of years!

We’ve played some exceptional football and reached the final of a city competition and in doing so became the first Ton team to do so in well over a decade! The Ton also had four representatives stand out amongst the elite of Birmingham primary school football whilst playing for the City of Birmingham. We’ve got better and better as a team. I mean, think back to the start of the season when we played Solihul and the shambles that we were that day. Then fast forward a couple of months to Wolverhampton when we played Solihul in the West Midlands 7-a-side and we almost left with a point. What an improvement!

Granted we had a bad day at the office against Aston but that sort of thing happens to every team. For example, Aston and South have been heavily beaten this season by Sutton and Briely Hill and Dudley respectively. It doesn’t make them a bad team and neither does it make us a bad team!

Finally, we’ve all made a truck load of new friends and surely that’s the most important thing to come out of District football!

 

Make sure you all enjoy your Christmas and don’t go eating too much as we need a few wins in January! Take care lads and I hope Santa pays you all a visit!

 

Ho, ho, ho…Up the Ton!

One bad result doesn’t make us a bad team!

Saturday 1st December 2012 @ Braemar Road

Erdington and Saltley (Jayden Ward) 1 – 6 Aston

24 hours has passed and I’ve finally decided to come out of the dark room that I’ve been hiding in and face the world! Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus are all great teams and all lose games. Erdington and Saltley have not become a bad team over night and we’ll certainly be back from this. My team talk after the game stressed that I wasn’t angry with anyone. After all we’re kids (me included) and kids should always be allowed to make mistakes without feeling like they’ll get in trouble. However, we also talked about how mistakes are fine but only because they allow us to learn. We must learn from this result and performance and put together a run of results to move us up the table.

So, what about the match I hear you say? Following a pitch inspection, the referee agreed to let the game go ahead, but only after a delayed kick off. Within ten minutes of the game starting, The Ton had taken the lead courtesy of a Jayden free kick from the edge of the area. However, with the squad depleted through injuries, we knew we were in for a tough morning despite our lead. By half time, Aston had a 3-1 lead and Loic was dictating the game from centre midfield.

The second half was unfortunately very similar to the first! Aston continued to control the game and scored three further goals. A scoreline like that is always hard to stomach, but Aston deserve every bit of credit that comes their way. They were majestic.

December 1st is always an exciting day because it means I get to open the first door on my advent calendar. I just hope we won’t be giving away anymore Christmas presents like we did yesterday! We are not a bad team. We are a good team who played badly but we’ll learn. The faith and belief I have in all of you lads has not diminished. I’m still proud to be the manager of The Ton and I know it’ll be onwards and upwards from here.

On a positive note, Treymaine was outstanding and caused them problems whenever on the ball. At times he ran through their defence like a hot knife slicing through butter.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend boys and we’ll dust ourselves off ready for East Birmingham next Saturday.

Is it safe to go outside yet?!

Team: Connor, Darrelle, Sam, Michael, Josh F, William, Jayden, Josh S, Treymaine, Cedric, Bailey, Carter

Ref’s M.O.M – Treymaine

Up the Ton!