The early morning escapade to Rednal proved to be the Maroons’ version of a sleepy rollercoaster, with a 30-minute drive that felt longer than a slow-motion replay. The 9 am start and freezing conditions was like waking up a bear from hibernation – definitely took its toll on the lads.
Now, let’s talk about the pitch – a 3g surface so beautiful it could make a sunset jealous. However, whoever drew the lines on that thing must’ve been practicing their spaghetti art skills. The penalty boxes were playing hide and seek – or maybe a sophisticated game of camouflage, who knows?
The Maroons kicked off with some excellent ball passing, seeking space like they were looking for hidden treasure. But the Rubery side decided they were the pirates of the match, indulging in robust tackling of Jesse, Seb, and Jacob
The Maroons found themselves a goal down, thanks to Rubery’s swift passing that was faster than a rumor spreading on social media.
The second goal came from the Maroons playing out from the back, Jesse and Daniel played some lovely passes to work the space, but much like Villa, in the early days of Unai Emery, they were caught and punished playing from the back.
Lucas came desperately close after a fabulous move where he switched it from left to right before forcing a wonderful save from the keeper, with Charlie trying his luck from a distance soon after. But another sucker punch, Rubery unleashed a strike from another dimension, leaving Daniel with as much chance as a snowball in a sauna. Seb, Jacob and Josiah battled valiantly in the middle against Rubery’s mighty midfielders. Daniel tagged out for Jacob in goal, and faster than a cat on a hot tin roof, Jacob faced a horrible shot straight at him.
Jesse having switched places with Charlie, had a wonderful strike hit the post before he wriggled free in the box unleashing another effort running across the face of the goal, once again hitting the post and falling nicely to a Rubery defender.