The U11 Boys squad was divided into two teams for the purposes of The Daniel Sturridge Cup
6 a side competition and Team B were placed in Group 4 alongside North Shropshire, Erdington & Saltley, and Kings Norton B.The 10 minute games didn’t give much time to get into games and players needed to be bright from the start as the first games kicked off in Aston Villa’s Dome at Brookvale at 8.30am so well done to our parents for getting the lads there for such an unearthly hour!. Wolverhampton faced Erdington & Saltley in their opening game and Joel Baddu put us in front when he smashed the ball home from close range but despite some heroic defending we were unable to defend our lead against such strong opposition and we evenually went down to a 2-1 defeat. The second game against Kings Norton was a tight contest of few chances for both teams and after securing a point in a 0-0 draw we knew that we needed a victory in our final group game if we were to avoid elimination from the competition.
Having scored just once in our two matches our chances didn't look particularly good but the lads rose to the challenge and got the job done in spectacular fashion. Kyze's excellent corner kick, which Kai met at the far post and volleyed home, worthy of winning any game. We held on to beat North Shropshire and our 1-0 victory ensured we finished second in our group on goal difference. A good achievement to finish runners up in our section but it meant that we were drawn against one of the other group winners and the lads found South Birmingham one step too far. Our Quarter Final opponents defeated us 4-0 and went on to win the Daniel Sturridge Cup for the 5th consecutive year. On the plus side both of our 6 a side teams can at least say they were beaten by the eventual winners but it does show, that despite all our efforts, there is still more that needs to be done if we are to win trophies ourselves..
Squad:Lucas Durnall (Long Knowle), Kingston Hines Boddie (Wilkinson) Joel Badu (Trinity), Charlie Durnall (Long Knowle),Kyze Hines Boddie (Wilkinson), Kai Cole (Fallings Park).
