The March Review, where delight turned to despair.
March:
Played 6; Won 1, Drew 2, Lost 3; For 10, Against 11, GD -1; Points 5 Position: 16th
Dover Athletic 0-0 Solihull Moors
In short: Daly injured as Moors gain impressive point at the Crabble
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly (Nortey), Kettle, Flanagan; Murombedzi, Sammons, Maye, Carline; Sterling-James (Charles-Cook); Afolayan (Udoh)
Goalscorers: N/A
Debutants: N/A
Solihull Moors 3-3 Braintree Town
In short: Direct Braintree cause early problems but Moors fight back for share of the spoils
Starting XI: Baxter; Nortey (Sterling-James), Daly, Kettle, Green; Murombedzi, Sammons, Maye, Carline; Charles-Cook (Udoh); Afolayan (Coyle)
Goalscorers: Maye (Sammons), Afolayan (Carline), Carline (Sammons)
Debutants: Callum Coyle
North Ferriby United 1-4 Solihull Moors
In short: Moors appear to all but confirm survival with thrashing of lowly North Ferriby
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Kettle, Flanagan, Franklin; Murombedzi (Charles-Cook), Sammons, Maye (Nortey), Carline; Sterling-James (Udoh); Afolayan
Goalscorers: Maye, Sterling-James (Maye), Carline (Sammons), Nortey
Debutants: N/A
Forest Green Rovers 2-1 Solihull Moors
In short: Spirited Moors left heartbroken as Doidge scores a 95th minute winner
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Franklin; Murombedzi (Byrne), Sammons (Nortey), Maye, Carline; Charles-Cook (Sterling-James); Afolayan
Goalscorers: Afolayan (Daly)
Debutants: N/A
Solihull Moors 2-4 Barrow
In short: Community Celebration Day ends in disarray as huge crowd see Moors thrashed
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Franklin (Sterling-James); Charles-Cook (Brown), Sammons, Maye, Byrne, Carline; Afolayan
Goalscorers: Green (Daly), Afolayan
Debutants: N/A
Solihull Moors 0-1 Torquay United
In short: Awful home display leaves Moors treading carefully as Charles-Cook loses his head
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Franklin; Charles-Cook, Maye, Byrne (Sanusi), Carline; Sterling-James (Brown); Afolayan
Goalscorers: N/A
Debutants: Hafeez Sanusi
Goalscorers:
12 – Akwasi Asante
11 – Harry White
8 – Omari Sterling-James
6 – Andy Brown
5 – Jamey Osborne
4 – Oladapo Afolayan
3 – Regan Charles-Cook, George Carline
2 – Ryan Beswick, Jack Byrne, Liam Daly, Simeon Maye
1 – Joel Dielna, Jordan Fagbola, Kristian Green, Joel Kettle, Shepherd Murombedzi, Nortei Nortey, Luke Rodgers
Assists:
4 – Liam Daly, Connor Franklin, Omari Sterling-James, Shepherd Murombedzi
3 – Jack Byrne, Darryl Knights, Ashley Sammons,
2 – Akwasi Asante, Ryan Beswick, George Carline, Jordan Gough, Jamey Osborne
1 – Andy Brown, Regan Charles-Cook, Joel Dielna, Eddie Jones, Simeon Maye, Harry White
With survival almost confirmed and thoughts tentatively looking towards the future, McDonald began the month by giving squad numbers to four youngsters hoping to make their way into the first-team squad in the near future – Marshall Willock and Tyrese Shade, who made their debuts in the Birmingham Senior Cup, Josh Endall, who would make his debut before the season closed, and Reiss McNally all receiving squad numbers to prove that the new boss was keen to help develop some of the fine young talent at his disposal.
It was a positive step towards but this would month would leave everybody guessing just where there immediate future would lie – Conference National or Conference North.
Dover were first up in March as Solihull Moors visited The Crabble with Harry White’s injury providing Oladapo Afolayan with a first opportunity to start a match in the fifth tier of English football while Ashley Sammons made only his second start since joining.
Both would return to rave reviews from those who made the long journey to Dover as Moors put up a stellar defensive performance against one of the division’s most prolific outfits – a team that included Ricky Miller. The only downside was the injury to Liam Daly which would have future implications.
He would start against a Braintree Town outfit now under the tutelage of Hakan Heyrettin who were proving an uncompromising group, a set of players intent on playing the old Wimbledon style of having big men all over the park, knocking the ball into the air at every opportunity and fighting for every second ball. It was awful to watch as a neutral but there was no arguing that in the first half an hour it was effective.
Nathan Baxter fumbling Reece Hall-Johnson’s free-kick early on did not help matters before Michael Cheek made it two when left free in the area. He would make it 3-0 from the penalty spot when Joel Kettle got himself in a tangle against fomer Gillingham and Wimbledon striker Jack Midson.
We simply never got started. Braintree won the first ball, they won the second and the third balls too. They were more aggressive and stamped their authority on proceedings. Their problem was that they could not keep up the ridiculously high tempo that they had begun with.
Despite the humiliating start McDonald’s side did not panic in possession. We knew we could not pick them off by playing direct football so the ball was kept on the floor where possible, we stretched the pitch and slowly we began to force our opposition back a little, helped by the lifeline provided by Simeon Maye’s header.
Afolayan was denied twice on the line by Ian Gayle in the first half before finally getting his goal with 11 minutes to go, twisting and turning his man before striking home and the Braintree giants failed to pick up George Carline in the area who would have the final say with a free header a few yards out from goal. He was never going to miss. Cue pandemonium.
North Ferriby came at a delightful time once more. Without wanting to cast them aside as a guaranteed victory, they were a side similarly built on youthful qualities but their inexperience was costing them dearly. As far as we were concerned, it was a game we were going to win and so it proved.
Simeon Maye opened the scoring, the first to react when Rory Watson impressively saved Sterling-James’ 20 yard effort onto the post. Robbie Tinkler responded by smashing home from the edge of the area.
The boys stepped up in the second half, the same combination reversing their roles to put McDonald’s men in the lead again as Simeon Maye crunched into a challenge that sent Sterling-James through on goal to slot home.
Ashley Sammons’ delivery from a fair way out found the head of George Carline who showed his athleticism once more before burying home a bullet header into the roof of the net. And Nortei Nortey finished the rout off with an effort from the edge of the box. As one member of Twitter quipped – ‘Goody goody’.
The situation was clear. We were 14th in the table on 48 points. One win was likely to secure survival. Nine matches left but crucially only one against a part-time club, that was the difficulty.
Forest Green Rovers were first up, one of those ‘bonus’ fixtures. Get a result, brilliant. Lose and it was expected anyway.
The hosts dominated the first-half keeping us at arms length at all times, puppets to the puppet masters. They popped the ball around and made us chase from side to side. Shepherd Murombedzi’s season was ended early on before Fabien Robert finally gave Mark Cooper’s side the lead after some dainty footwork.
McDonald made a change at half-time. Off went Ashley Sammons on came Nortei Nortey. It was back to the days of 3-5-2 and it worked brilliantly, Carline, Byrne and Maye winning the midfield duel and setting the ever-energetic Charles-Cook and Afolayan on their way at every opportunity.
It was Afolayan who got the equaliser, Daly’s quick thinking set the youngster away and he showed his entire skill set in one brilliant solo move. Intelligence and strength to lean into his defender and break away, his pace to break beyond the last man, his quick feet to round the keeper and the composure to then bide his time, wait for the final defender to run beyond him before scoring.
The teenager then had an effort from distance fall narrowly wide of the target, Forest Green hit the underside of the bar before Afolayan missed the guilt-edged chance of the game, Sam Russell doing just enough to put him off from a couple of yards.
Moors finished up defending on the edge of their own area and were punished, Christian Doidge winning the game in the 95th minute.
Community Celebration Day was a fine way to get over the midweek heartbreak and a wonderful start to the afternoon saw youngsters from all over Birmingham head down to the ATG and take part in the fun and activities. The crowd was packed and the day showed just how highly people thought of this up and coming football club.
Barrow would ultimately ruin proceedings as the first-team struggled against yet another giant outfit willing to go direct at every opportunity. They were 4-0 up shortly after half-time, late goals from Kristian Green and Afolayan, both fantastic goals admittedly, not enough to salvage the kind of result managed against Braintree Town a week before.
The month ended with Torquay United, the game we all thought might give us our best chance of victory and survival heading towards the final month of the campaign.
I’ll give Torquay United credit, they turned up desperate for victory and put in the most committed performance seem from an opposition team all season. They were short on quality but ran, tackled, kicked and put their bodies on the line for the cause. The effort alone deserved three points. However, we were awful and the 1-0 defeat was compounded by Regan Charles-Cook’s late stamp.
Three defeats on the bounce, the game in hand lost and just seven points now separating us and the bottom four. It was comfortable enough but with Aldershot Town, Tranmere Rovers and fellow relegation strugglers York City on the horizon it was not going to be straight forward.
