ABBEY TROPHY KINGS!

A chilly Castle Vale Stadium on Wednesday evening saw eight schools compete for the season's first piece of silverware, the inaugural ESPSFA Trophy. Having come through the qualifying rounds back in November, Hillstone, Corpus Christi, Abbey and Audley took their places in Group A, while SS Peter & Paul, Short Heath, Blakenhale and Timberley lined up in Group B.
Having opened up against Hillstone in a 2-2 thriller, Abbey backed that up with wins over Audley and Corpus to head the group with 7 points. The Stone joined them in the semi-finals courtesy of a better goal difference over Audley. Both sides finished on 4 points and Audley were left to rue multiple missed chances in all of their games.
Group B saw SS Peter & Paul take the honours, also with 7 points. Their final group match, a pulsating 2-2 draw with Short Heath, saw P&P nick top spot with the impressive Heathens securing a runners-up spot - this at the expense of both Timberley and Blakenhale.
So to the semi-finals which pitted Abbey against Erdington rivals SSPP and Short Heath up against Hillstone. With so much quality on show, the games were bound to be tight affairs and after 10 frantic minutes on either pitch, penalties were required to decide the finalists; Abbey took an early lead over P&P only for the black'n'whites to seize on an errant Abbey throw-in, to draw level and despite both sides having great opportunities, neither Short Heath or Hillstone could find the net.
Sudden death spot-kicks were required to find our finalists and it was Abbey and Short Heath who eventually won through.
The final itself was a terrific encounter, ebbing and flowing from end-to-end. A valiant Short Heath took the champions all the way and in a thumping game came from two goals down to force a penalty shoot-out decider. In a nerve-racking best of three contest, Abbey came out on top, 2-1, and in doing so, took home the Trophy - the champions laying down a marker for the rest of the season.
Full credit to all the schools tonight, who, on a cold evening, served up a tremendous feast of football which augurs well for when the league season resumes in March.