Sucker punch at Boldmere

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Cruel injury time blow denies Star.

On the back of two opening game defeats, Continental Star 1st team took the short trip to Boldmere St Michaels looking to gain their 1st win of the season.
The sun was shining and the Boldmere ground staff had done a great job preparing the playing surface.
So to kick off.
Game started at a decent pace with both sides having a fair amount of possession, but only managing to create half chances.
On 30 mins Boldmere created another half chance on the edge of the stars box and took an early shot. Hunter seemed to lose the flight of the ball, but still managed to turn it away for a corner. (These new balls move all over the place)
The game continued to ebb and flow until the 35 min when Holgate produced a great turn on the outside edge of the Boldmere box, as the ball bounced up he took it early (with what looked to be the outside of the boot from where I was) and lobbed the keeper with a sublime finish
1-0 Stars
Boldmere looked rattled, but still continued to create half chances and on 40 mins with a long ball over the top of the defence, the Boldmere striker went down in the box under a challenge from Robinson. Whistle in his mouth and finger pointing to the spot the ref awarded a penalty.
After saving a penalty on the opening day of the season, Hunter always seems confident when faced 1on 1 from 12 yards and he didn’t disappoint this time. The ball was well struck by the boldmere player to Hunters right hand side, but a brilliant save kept the score at 1-0
HT
A change of ends, but similar pattern to the start of the 2nd half with both sides enjoying possession and creating chances. Again, another long ball over the star defence on 65mins found the Boldmere strikers feet, he had a decent touch and slotted it past the advancing Hunter to level the game.
Undeterred, Star continued to play football and swiftly regained the lead on 68 mins when substitute Cobourne drilled the ball into the bottom corner to put Star 2-1 up.
By now Stars were looking comfortable, pulling Boldmere around the pitch with some great football and creating some decent chances, most notably when Stardom made himself a little space out on the left hand side of the box and whipped in a vicious curling shot (keeper rooted) which hit the foot of the post and bounced away.
Stardom again had another chance, he tried to lob the keeper, keeper made a save and the ball fell to Cobourne who hit a first time volley which narrowly went wide of the Boldmere goal. Star were looking comfortable and managed to contain Boldmere to half chances and long balls whilst still creating chances. Two of which fell to Cobourne, but Boldmeres Keeper produced two decent saves to keep his side in the game.
With 90 mins gone Boldmere were throwing men forward and won themselves a corner. With a nice, pacey delivery into the box, Boldmere player Lyng rose above the Star defence to power the header home and deny Star what seemed like their first win of the season.
2-2
More misery was yet to come, on 94 mins Boldmere player Swain found himself on the edge of the Star box, with a melee of players in front of him, he took a pot shot at the Star goal which was headed nowhere until it took a cruel deflection off Green which sent Hunter scrambling to his left hand side. At full stretch, Hunter could only get fingertips to the ball, not enough to keep to keep the ball out.
3-2 Boldmere
Star were cruelly denied 3 points in a game which seemed to be (and probably should have) gave them their 1st win of the season.
Plenty of positives to take and lessons to be learnt.

Team
1. Hunter
2. Green. D
3. Davies
4. Hazell
5. Robinson
6. Thompson
7. Green. T
8. Hamilton
9. Reid. R
10. Holgate
11. Reid. J
Subs
12. Cobourne
13. James
14. Richards
15. Sterling
16. Anderson

Next game v Coleshill Town on Wednesday 14th Aug at home.

Apologies if I missed anything, didn’t know I’d be doing the write up.

Karl Hunter Report by: Karl Hunter.

U18s too strong for Kings Heath

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U18s prove too strong over the two games

Yesterday saw the U18’s take on King Heath Sports in a double header which would determine if we still had a chance to do the double and with the hunger of the squad it seemed nothing but certain.

Game 1: the game started off on a high as we started to control the game with our unique passing and it was surely proved a treat as it took our 1st goal to come in an instant and this can from our man in form Sim who made a great run and calmly dispatched the ball in the back of the net, but we didn’t stop there as the unstoppable play of Jahayne on the right wing led to us getting a second goal; he was causing the left back marking him nothing but problems.  As the 2nd half played we felt that we were starting to get unlucky spells in our own half as the strong wind prevented us from continuing what we started in the 1st half; the opposition to take advantage of this, but it didn’t prevent us from keeping our heads up and working together to get out of a sticky situation.  Unfortunately, Kings Heath were due a lucky break as we switched off momentarily and this led to us conceding – but this only made us stronger as we continued to fight for each other.  This proved to be vital as this allowed Sim to get his second goal of the game thus ending the 1st game of the two 3 – 1 in Star’s favour.

Game 2: As the 1st game had ended it was time for our final match which proved nothing but vital to our league campaign and as we felt the strong wind still in the mist we felt it would make sense to play against it in order to put ourselves in the driving seat for the 2nd half. The game kicked off and as we expected we had a challenge on our hands with both the wind blowing viciously and Kings Heath coming at us with all they had.  It proved profitable for them, as once again we shut down as a team and this allowed them to take the lead from a player crossing the ball in the box straight away from a throw; their striker capitalised on this, nodding the ball in and putting us a goal down.  We kicked off with our heads slightly dropped knowing how important the game, we weren’t playing well, but thankfully we didn’t allow Kings Heath to create any more chances.  As we slowly started to realise we were still in the game we began to control the game once more, but not capitalising on our chances.  The half ended with us being 1-0 down, but we were grateful for the whistle.

The 2nd half got underway and after a strong observation and team talk between ourselves and the managers: Aaron and Skits, we realised what we needed to do and how we needed to do it.  Our second half performance demonstrated that what was said at half-time had sunk into our heads.  Great attacking play by Junior led to a free-kick being awarded.  The ball was placed down between Lemaar and Jojo, and to everybody’s surprise, it was Jojo who not only took the free-kick, but he struck it all the way home from a tight angle.  This not only got us back in the game, but gave us a deadly amount of confidence that Kings Heath were surely intimidated by, as they once again struggled to cope with Jahayne, who was a constant threat; he was rewarded by his efforts when he stroked the ball into the open net from a well worked cross by Jojo, who had dropped into the number 10 role due to Sim being subbed.  As the game went on we didn’t sit back, we continued to dominate and this led to us nearly getting a third, but unfortunately it didn’t come and this resulted in us winning 2-1.

I just want to say well done to the lads as we continually worked hard despite it being an early kick off but this didn’t affect us at all as we proved morning or afternoon games we can still dominate opponents.  This result leaves us with a few games left and our final on the 28th of this month which is an 11:00 am kick off.  All support would be much appreciated as we were delighted to have as much people as we did for our semi final.

Craig Foster Report By Craig Foster 15/4/13

U13s win at WBA

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This evening (27/02/13) the U13s had the pleasure of playing a friendly fixture against a Wolverhampton based club by the name of NVP.  This fixture took place on the new 4G pitch at the new West Bromwich Albion training facility.  The boys played some fantastic football and at times left NVP chasing shadows.  The effort that they put in was rewarded with an eventual 3-1 victory, with goals coming from Ross (1) and Kehnan (2). It was definitely another proud moment.

U13s at WBA

I would like to thank Lincoln Moses for his part in getting this fixture organised.  I would also like to thank all those that came out to support the boys: Leon Moses, Jason Sylvester, Sunu Roger Sunny and Carly Whitehouse.

“What a great match to watch!  The U13s controlled the game throughout, creating some excellent chances and displaying an excellent exhibition of ‘passing the ball’ and working as a unit.”  Jason C Sylvester: U14s Coach

Youth team players step up

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Today the reserves travelled to Tipton Town and came away with a polished and convincing 4 – 0 victory.  I watched the performance with a big smile on my face as I was able to involve 6 players from Continental Star’s U16 squad: Lermaar, Simon, Tasian, Lathi and Tray.  [Not to forget Josh, who made his debut in a recent game.]

A special mention goes out to Tasian, who having only just turned 16, made his senior debut in goals, with a big man performance (keeping a clean sheet).  They are all a credit to the club with their positive attitude, dedication and application.

Youths making debut Josh wilson debut

Report: Deno Moses – Reserve Team Manager.

 

16 yr old makes 1st team debut

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In a week where Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs is poised to play his 1000th senior professional game, Continental Star’s U16 player, Shaquille, makes his 1st team debut in a 2 v 2 draw against Rocester in the Midland Football Alliance.

Shaquile 1st team debut Shauquille debut

“He’s a hard working, talented player who wont be phased by this all, and will take it all in his stride.” said his U16: coach Daniel Moses.

“This is an example of the youth system at Continental Star working; there is no doubt that Shaquille has a promising future.” Lincoln Moses: General Manager