Thursday 2 nd July. Squad - Josh W Mason Ashton Owen B-A Kyrees Callum Daijahn Darnte Kadeem Cairo Jowell Kalid A new – look Great Barr travelled to Glenmead and came away with a hard- earned draw.

The final match of the season saw us take on Glenmead in a friendly match. It was a great opportunity to say farewell to the year 6 players whilst also looking at some of the year 5’s in preparation for next year. The first half ended 0-0 with both teams creating a few chances each. Glenmead probably had the majority of the possession and better of the chances. Mason, in goal, made a couple of saves for Great Barr. Callum and Daijahn were, again, very solid defensively and continually offered to play from the back, which was great to see. Jowell, playing in a DM role, worked tirelessly and covered a lot of ground. Although he had a defensive role, the best chance of the half to Jowell, but he shot just wide from 8 yards out.

In the second half it was Glenmead who took the lead (1-0) early on. At this point it would have been very easy for the Great Barr players to start blaming others and to give up but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Cairo and Kadeem, who have been very dangerous and creative all season, finally started to get themselves a little more involved within the game (perhaps due to the frustration of conceding or perhaps due to being asked to work harder by Mr. Stevens and Mr. Hooper at half time). A minute or two after conceding, Cairo picked the ball up on the left wing, dribbled past two defenders and crossed the ball in to the box. Kalid was waiting in the box and his presence caused confusion in the Glenmead defence and one of their players, whilst trying to clear the ball, passed it in to his own net (1-1). Kadeem, who by now was starting to work harder and use his physical strength to drive past defenders, soon followed up with a goal of his own- a powerful strike in to the bottom corner (2-1). Unfortunately, late on we conceded an equaliser. Our shape had gone a little bit and when the ball was cleared by Glenmead it went over the top of our defence. Their striker then ran on to it and calmly slotted it home past Ashton in goal (2-2).

In the end a draw was probably a fair result. Some of the year 6 players got to experience playing in different positions and some of the year 5s got to add to their previous experience or, had the opportunity to represent the school for the first time. Overall, everybody played well and it was great to see some of the talent that will be available next year. Unfortunately, making numerous substitutions did mean that the team’s shape went at times and this eventually disrupted us and cost us a goal. But individually, each player did really well.