Relentless Dene Right On Song!

Glorious spring sunshine greeted the latest round of matches on Thursday evening in the Premier division with twelve schools competing at three venues.

Mapledene’s splendid Arena welcomed Brownmead, the team who crushed ‘dene’s hopes of a top two finish last season – but how the tide has turned since then with ‘dene a different proposition now. They are also up to second place in the table.

Buoyed again by the prospect of extending their remarkable run of victories, Mapledene’s high-pressing unsettled ‘mead and the home side broke through on 6 minutes. Dene’s lead was doubled as their hard-working centre forward earning him a well-deserved goal before the break - the away keeper producing 2 excellent saves to keep the visitors in it. A fast start to the second stanza was asked for by the home coaches and the boys delivered: three quick goals in the first five minutes took the game away from Brownmead, just as the last goal took a little deflection away from Brownmead's excellent keeper to make it 6-0 at the final whistle. Credit to Brownmead whose players never gave up, played with determination and even when the game wasn't quite going for them, they gave an excellent exhibition of team spirit.

At Castle Vale Stadium eight schools met and a right old mixed bag of results ensued. Corpus Christi, with games in hand on the leading pack, were on song in a 4-1 in over a young Thornton outfit. The Thorns threw caution to the wind when 2-1 down and were picked off by Corpus’s swift counter-attacks. With sights on ending the evening in the top four, Corpus then tackled a smarting Highfield who had just lost 3-0 to Colebourne – a combination of poor defending, tidy Coles finishing and excellent ‘keeping from Coles’ number one, cost ‘field dearly; Highfield also missed a late penalty. The Alum Rockers though bounced back in fine style and shocked Corpus in a 3-0 win; coach Mr Jay cut an exasperated figure as he exited the stadium.

Heathlands secured six points from their games against Erdington Hall (2-1) and another narrow win (1-0) over Alston and still have play-offs hopes - they still have a number of games to play. Colebourne also enjoyed a six-point haul as they backed up their Highfield win with a close 2-1 triumph over Erdington Hall. For their part, Hall are still awaiting their first win of the season and so are Alston, who lost out to Parkfield (0-2) in their opening fixture. Parkfield couldn’t replicate that win as they succumbed to a 3-2 loss against Thornton following an exciting and entertaining 25 minutes with chances coming and going at either end in alarming fashion.

Finally, over in Kitts Green, The Oval were hosting Paget and after 25 breathless minutes of end-to-end football, the home side just got the better of their guests in a nine-goal thriller winning 5-4.

So, as we break for Easter, Mapledene, who have two games in hand on front-runners Lea Forest, sit second in the table on 30 points, just two points adrift. Corpus Christi are not out of it despite their Highfield setback and though they are eleven points behind the leaders, have three games in hand. Heathlands are a further five points back, but they have played six games fewer than Forest and could still have a say. As could Highfield who are not mathematically out of the frame, but they will need to win all of their remaining fixtures to stand any chance of a play-off spot. The same goes for Colebourne who have five games left to play and are in sixth on 18 points after their two wins this evening. Thornton have now completed their league season and from their 17 games, have a very respectable 23 points to show for their efforts.

Enjoy the Easter break everyone, all to play for in May!