Well, where to start???
As the song goes...what a difference a day makes...24 little hours!...
Having been on the end of a 5-0 beating yesterday - Shelfield came to Aldridge full of confidence knowing that thye only had to win to secure Promotion.
An AWAY win looked to be on the cards...and damage limitation was on everyones minds.
But, as always you can never tell which Starlands team is going to turn up!???
Starlands started brightly, albeit that Shelfield clearly were clearly the better side - Starlands worked together as a team.
From back to front, they helped each other out - supported, ran off the ball and tried their little hearts out.
The defence of Oscar and Marcus looked solid and they threw themselves in front of ever shot.
Ben had a couple of early saves to make and pushed the ball onto the bar, pushed it wide and saved a free kick from distance with his legs.
Starlands only had 10 minutes to see out before half time - and agonisingly a fierce corner hit Josh as he was trying to get in the way of the attackers run.
The ball shot off his foot into the bottom corner...time stood still....every boy couldnt believe what had just happened, infact I am sure some appealed to the referee to disallow it!
Starlands found themselves 1-0 down - and did not desrve it.
Shelfields heads were up as the first half finished...they could smell Promotion. Josh was upset - even though it was not his fault.
The boys gathered expecting Ricks usual hair dryer performance....but, not today...He could not criticise any boys performance today.
The second half, Starlands had the wind behind them. The midfielders of Jed , Kieran and Luke especially were putting themselves about...tackling hard and tracking back.
Zak came on latterly to add a bit of calm. and took his opportunity well, with a shot from the edge of the box that found itself up and over the goalkeeper ! 1-1 The boys were back into the match , and Zak had got his first goal for Starlands ! Well Done...You dont get many of those in defence !
Starlands now had the upper hand and the impetus...Shelfied could feel it slipping away from them. They had taken off their BIG defender and this allowed Starlands a bit more freedom - and less risk of a long range shot!
A lovely ball through to Kieran allowed him to run on and bury it under the keeper...the ball was almost over the line when goal hungry Lewis rushed in to poach the goal!!!
Visions of Gary Lineker - but the goal stood and the panel have awarded it to Kieran ! lol. and likewise Josh's own goal does not count towards Top Goal Scorer !
2-1 Starlands were leading!...was this really the same team from yesterday?
another lovely move down the right saw Kieran put through a lovely square pass to Zak on the edge of the box who struck it first time...the ball flew....top corner....but from nowhere the Shelfiedl keeper sprung into action and dived to save the ball tipping it wide. tremendous football !!! and a great way for the keeper to make ammends for his earlier mistake...top class save. Robbed Zak of goal of the season!
Starlands held on with the defence standing solid...some Big kicks from Ben nearly set Lewis on his way....
The game finished 2-1 to the home side. Excellent result.
It was a shame Shelfield had to miss out on promotion like that - but,it was great for our boys to see what they CAN achieve ! Well done everyone.
Rick awarded a TEAM MAN OF THE MATCH AWARD ! which meant Ben got to keep the trophy for another few nights ;)
Enjoy The Sunday morning lie ins!!!! Mums & Dads!
