A capacity crowd were treated to a great game of end to end football on Saturday morning at the 'Home of Football' ™, Streetly Community Centre when the Dev side entertained Colron Colts.
Going into the match Dev were down to the bare bones as Josh Davies and Jake Smith watched on from the sidelines both serving 1 match disciplinary bans, Oliver Turner was also missing having been delayed coming back from international duty.
But it was warm spring weather and warm smiles all around as Dev kicked off against their illustrious neighbours who quickly went on the offensive but were easily thwarted by some sublime defensive work from James Lawrence. Colts were ahead soon after though when a clever quick corner was well converted at the near post.
The game continued to ebb and flow for the rest of the half as Colts' superior team shape and play made it easier for them to mount forays into Dev's penalty area.
Mark Bryon deserved more from his excellent run late on in the first quarter where he beat three defenders from within his own half before surging the the edge of the Colt's box and squirrelling a shot just wide before superbly marshalling Dev's defence in the final 2 quarters.
Caius Farmer was next to go close for Dev with another darting run diagonally across the pitch but the resulting shot missed the target by inches and was desperately unlucky with a snorting free kick in the last minute that flashed agonisingly past the post.
Josh James made good space for himself from central midfield with tidy skills the highlight of which was a drag push which had a Colts midfield grasping at thin air.
James Lawrence continued to display tidy skills from out wide and consistently produced a good ball to team mates.
As the game progressed Morgan Simpson and Joe Pring grew into the game with some considered touches and good covering for other team mates showing good maturity when under pressure.
Miles Jackson has improved a considerable amount from previous games looking composed in midfield and defence whilst dealing with pressure from opposition players.
Fraser managed to get involved and get on the ball to good effect before being forced off with a stomach upset.
Man of the match went to Matt Smith in goal for his top drawer display, coming out well the thwart 1 on 1 situations and commanding the penalty area really well.

Credit goes to a stronger Colts team who worked well as a team trusting each other with the ball and closing down quickly when it was lost.

Overall a really good session with lots of positives and lots of improvement.