In Tim Flowers' second game in charge, he was tasked with manoeuvring his Church side into the third round of the Birmingham Senior Challenge Cup against step-five Highgate United. The visitors arrived into the encounter on the back of three straight clean sheets aiming to continue their momentum and book a place in the third round of the competition.

This was a perfect chance for Flowers to rotate and utilise his squad but also add some fresh faces to the mix. The Youth pathway came to the forefront as Church shined the light on it, massively. The new manager included SIX youth team players in his matchday squad with four of them warranting a start.

Korey Peets-Fearon came into the backline in place of Crowther, who was named on the bench for the very first time this season. Jack Carter, who will be familiar to the Church fans so far having been included in matchday squads previously, he was granted his full senior debut for the first-team. The next out of four was Jaelon West, who has started the season on fire for our Football and Education team netting eight times in nine contests. A man in form. A man for the occasion? The final star starting for just the third time in his Alvechurch career was Daniele Reka, who partnered West up-front from the get-go.

Dieter Schwarm, part of our Under 18's set-up, was named amongst the substitutes. There was also a space on the bench for our Alvechurch Women's first-team manager Ben Davis. Not only is he our Women's manager, he has over 100+ goals for the club at our Reserves level, so firepower in his weaponry to add to the team.

HOW IT UNFOLDED...
On a bitter cold night under the lights at the Coppice Stadium, it was the hosts, who got us underway for the cup tie.

As expected, it was the visitors on top in terms of dominating possession without really creating too many clear-cut chances. On ten minutes, West and Pearce both attacked the same ball ending up in the way of each other. If one communicated for the ball, Alvechurch probably would have broke the deadlock but instead the ball flashed out of play and the chance evaded us.

The next chance broke on 22 minutes. Sterling-James, in from the start - set to miss the next three matches due to his red card, opened up the space down the right-hand side before delivering a teasing and wonderful cross into the path of Reka, who guided it on but somehow the ball didn't cross the line due to some spectacular goalkeeping and arguably poor finishing. Chance gone.

You sensed it was a matter of time before that door came down.

Three minutes later and Church were scratching their heads as to how they weren't ahead. A shot inside the area was denied on the line by some brilliant defending before the rebound was rifled like a bullet towards the top of the net but the goalkeeper pulled off a quite magnificent save to deny Kieran Wakefield!

But, as we said, it was a matter of time. On 33 minutes, their dominance paid off. A floated ball in by Sterling-James from a wide free-kick was headed back across the face of goal from skipper Krystian Pearce. Sam Perry came storming in and scrambled the ball over the line for his first goal for the football club. Not a pretty one, but a goal is all that matters at the end of it all.

As we approached the final moments of the first period, West went on a dazzling run before curling an effort just wide of the mark as we entered the break ahead.

HT: HIGHGATE UNITED 0-1 ALVECHURCH

How would the travelling side approach the second period?

The answer to that was empathetic. Within eleven minutes of the restart, the game was completely taken away from the home team, who were shell-shocked by the start made to the second half by the young Church side.

On 49 minutes, West closed down the goalkeeper forcing him into an awful mistake to make at any level. There was still a bit for Ammar Dyer to do. From 35 yards out, Dyer picked his head up and fired a wonderful effort towards goal with the goalkeeper miles out of his goal. His perfectly placed strike ended up in the back of the net!

Fast forward seven minutes and Tim Flowers' men were in the mood to expand the lead. The young superstar striker, West, followed up on a long ball. His persistence paid off as he chased down the loose ball before putting two Highgate defenders on the floor and the man in form for the Education programme followed up his red-hot form by adding to it. His brilliant strike ended up in the roof of the net. Devastating to say the least.

The team now in cruise control started to ring the changes.

63 minutes into the game, and there was a debut for Ben Davis, who entered the fray for scorer of our third goal, Jaelon West. There was time for another change fourteen minutes before the end as Schwarm also made his way onto the pitch for a debut in place of Jack Carter, who had made his full senior debut for the first-team.

Massive learning experiences for ALL SIX YOUTH players. We would like to say a huge thank you to their coaches past and present, who have taken the time to develop these players over the course of their footballing journey. A huge thank you to dedicating your time to allowing these players to have a platform and a huge thank you to the club for placing huge trust in our set-up at the club.

You have all made this possible. But not least, a huge well done to the six individuals for working so hard to get their careers to this point and we hope you enjoyed your moment. There will be more chances in the future, that we are sure of.

FT: HIGHGATE UNITED 0-3 ALVECHURCH

A huge night for the club, who continued to shine the light on the pathway at the football club and the more you trust it, the more rewards that come from it. Another huge positive is that Church sail into the third round in Tim Flowers' second game in charge of the club but also his second win and second clean sheet in a matter of days. Time to keep pushing forward!