SOLIHULL Moors suffered defeat in their first pre-season outing after losing 3-0 to a strong Birmingham City side in the Arthur Cup.
In the third instalment of the competition, played in memory of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Blues came out on top thanks to goals from Alfie May, Koji Miyoshi and Lukas Jutkiewicz at Damson Park.
The game came to a stop in the sixth minute for a period of applause in memory of Arthur while a series of fundraising activities for the NSPCC took place throughout.
Blues took the lead on 12 minutes when the visitors won possession deep in the Solihull half before May drilled a low shot into the bottom left corner of the goal.
Birmingham doubled their lead on 51 minutes when a Emil Hansson intercepted a loose pass and played the ball into the path of Miyoshi who curled a first time shot into the top left corner of the goal.
And Blues added a third goal on 63 minutes as substitute Jutkiewicz coolly finished Siriki Dembele’s low ball in from the left.
Moors boss Andy Whing said: “We’ve worked hard defensively, we’re trying to build relationships with new players, there were a lot of young players out there, we had a few experiences ones missing.
“All in all, there was some really pleasing stuff in there, it was a great learning curve for us. We’re going to keep on improving
“There’s loads to improve on, we feel like we’re in a really good place, the lads are fit, we haven’t done any sprinting or anything like that at the moment.
“The least we can do is a host a fantastic game, Birmingham bring loads of fans as well, hopefully we can keep raising as much money as possible for the NSPCC.
“It was a really good night to remember a special lad.”
Solihull continue their pre-season campaign against Oxford United on Saturday, July 20 with kick-off at 1pm at Damson Park.
