Barnie's Joy as Champions Defeated!

ESPSFA Champions Yardley Youth’s reign came to an official end on Tuesday night as they were beaten 3-1 at home by St Barnabas.
It was a much-changed Yardley side due to being out of the play-off race and it included three debutants. The Youths battled against a very strong St Barnabas team who had the physical edge and the Erdington-based strode into a 2-0 lead within the first ten minutes. Yardley pulled a goal back to give them a chance of a recovery but conceded another just before the break. The Youths improved in the second half but left themselves too much to do and couldn't break down a stubborn St Barnabas defence. Barnie’s remained a threat on the counter but failed to add to their tally, nonetheless, St Barnabas were deserved winners over the piece.
St Barnabas then went again against a Mapledene side taking to the field for their final outing of the season knowing that even a win would leave them just outside the top three. And it was Mapledene who started brightly and took then lead when a long-range effort crashed into the net. As the game wore on, Barnie’s began to tire and the ‘dene doubled their advantage when a striker bundled in from a yard out - it was a lead Mapledene did not relinquish.

Another side also finishing shy of the top three was Abbey who signed off their league season with a 4-0 win over Harper Bell at Hillstone Road. Prior to that hosts, Hillstone, had a much tighter game against Bell with only the one ‘stone goal separating the two sides.

And just around the corner in Shard End, Brownmead were hosting Firs and Gunter at their Pencroft Road base. Firs were playing their final two games of a season in which that had to win a game but tonight was the night and they finally netted that elusive win as they ground out a 1-0 victory over Gunter. Sadly for Firs, they couldn’t match that result in their final game of the season as they lost out 2-0 to Brownmead. In the evening's other game at Pencroft, Gunter held Brownmead to a 2-2 draw.