IT'S A SEXTUPLE FOR AMAZING HEATH!

Superlatives are often thrown around in the modern-day world – everything is awesome or incredible or amazing, but one can add outstanding, incredible, superb and a plethora of others to describe Short Heath’s achievement of a never-been-done-before sextuple of trophies in one ESPSFA season. On Wednesday evening, Heath added the Year 4/5 trophy to their burgeoning cabinet to go along with the ESPSFA league and La Liga titles, ESPSFA Cup and Trophy and the Girls Cup – it goes beyond remarkable.
Eleven teams took part in the final ESPSFA event of the 2023-24 season and were split into two groups of 4 and one of three.
Group A saw Paget finish top with three wins from three games, Lea Forest runners-up and courtesy of a 2-1 win over Timberly, St Bernadette’s made it through to the quarter-finals in third.
Mapledene, Rosary and SS Peter and Paul were Group B’s trio and though Mapledene lost their opening game 2-0 to SSPP, they recovered to finish in pole position. The final game of the group would determine who joined ‘dene in the last eight and it was Rosary who found their shooting boots to defeat SSPP, 3-0.
Group C’s winner was decided in the first game as Short Heath took on Abbey and it was the former who won a real arm-wrestle-of-a-game, 1-0 – both won their other two games to go through to the quarter-finals first and second respectively. Hillstone edged out Heathlands for the remaining Group C last-eight berth.
Quarter Finals
Paget eased past Hillstone, 3-0 to land themselves yet another semi-final as Mapledene made light work of their clash with St Bernadette’s, easing to a 2-0 win. Short Heath and Lea Forest were involved in a battle-royal with no-quarter given – Heath though prevailed, narrowly, 1-0. And in the final last eight tie, Abbey downed Rosary 2-0.
Semi-Finals
As tight as tight could be! Paget and Abbey locked horns but neither could land a knock-out blow so penalties were required to produce a winner – Abbey quickly nailed it to book themselves a final spot. And it was a very similar story in the other semi, with Mapledene and Short Heath going toe-to-toe in a gripping encounter but once again, clean sheets were in order so off to penalties we went. This was a shoot-out of gargantuan proportions, with both sides having the chance to win it but after what seemed like an age, Short Heath’s ‘keeper made one more crucial save to pave the way for a team-mate to secure a third consecutive summer tournament final for the Streetly Road outfit.
Final
Short Heath 2 – 1 Abbey
And so the final game of the season and what a game it was. Both sides high on adrenaline, fueled with passion and commitment, served up a cracker, befitting of both the occasion and the season. The game began at a tremendous pace which did not relent for seven scorching minutes and it was Short Heath who struck the first blow when a defender fired home a beauty of a free-kick from long range. Abbey were undaunted though and quickly forced Heath’s ‘keeper into a couple of decent stops but there was nothing he could do to prevent the amber and blacks equalising – another super strike which flew into the far corner. The game continued to ebb and flow and really could have gone either way but it was Short Heath who grabbed the winner to take home the spoils and bring to an end their amazing, incredible, astounding and really quite astonishing season.
Heartiest congratulations to Short Heath, they have set a pretty high bench-mark and it’s up to the rest of the league to catch them up. Roll on September when we do it all over again!