Southern & Ettalong 1 – 2 The Entrance
Our match of the round for the opening weekend of football saw the return of our Women’s Division 1 competition as former WPL side Southern & Ettalong went to battle against last year’s All Age 1’s champions, The Entrance.
Overall, the Sunday afternoon match was a tight affair, resulting in a comeback victory for The Entrance.
Not long after the first whistle on a sunny James Browne Oval, both teams traded shots, and for The Entrance goalkeeper Cara Maxwell, it was the start of a hectic game with the gloves.
After a tight first few minutes, it was clear both sides were playing with vastly different gameplans. Southern opted to play along the wings, looking to cut in and win duels, and The Entrance preferred to look for through balls from the middle to put their forwards in behind Southern’s high defensive line that often operated on or just behind halfway.
It was Southern’s way that the first good chance fell when Letisha McCormack came in from the right wing and showed off some great footwork in the box to find a shot towards Maxwell’s goal, who, with a dive low to her right, made one of her best saves of the afternoon to keep it 0-0.
After this, Southern cemented their control, constantly winning the ball with their press and efficiently getting it out to their wingers to drive attacks, but the deadlock wasn’t broken along the wings.
Southern’s Hannah Davidson received the ball just past halfway in the middle of the field, with limited passing options but plenty of space ahead of her. From here, she bought a ticket to the lottery and won.
Davidson struck an awkward and low shot at The Entrance’s goal, and on what was otherwise a flawless afternoon for her, Maxwell appeared to lose the ball in the sunlight, leaving it to bounce in front of her and into the net to give Southern a stunning 1-0 lead.
The next few minutes were all Southern’s as they pushed hard to double their advantage. McCormack was constantly running down the right wing fighting for the ball, at one point making a tackle on halfway before storming towards the box. However, she only managed to send her shot wide thanks to solid cover defence by The Entrance, which did not allow her to get a better angle.
It was a chance that sums up Southern’s performance. They had plenty of possession, especially in the first half, and many good moments, but they just couldn’t set up clear-cut chances when needed.
This lack of clinical attacking would eventually haunt Southern when, from nothing, The Entrance would produce their own wonder goal courtesy of Lisa Bullivant.
Bullivant received the ball along the right sideline and was tightly marked by Southern’s Bonnie Hoye; the play seemed destined to end up going out, when suddenly, Bullivant made to beat her defender by continuing along the sideline, Hoye slips as Bullivant gets past, and without taking a step closer to the box, she chips an audacious shot with pinpoint accuracy that Morgan Ross couldn’t deal with in the Southern goal as it dips just under the crossbar and over her head to spectacularly make the scoreline 1-1.
With halftime looming, the tide now began to change in favour of The Entrance.
Southern continued with their risky high defensive line, looking to press and transition swiftly into attack, and the women in red looked to exploit this every chance they got, resulting in what felt like countless offside calls throughout the game.
In this fashion The Entrance’s striker Angela Cabarrus almost snatched the lead just before halftime, after nearly getting in behind before Ross cleaned it up.
As such, it felt like Southern were saved by the whistle, which saw both sides quickly retreat to the shade to get their well-earned break.
The second half started similarly to the first, with Southern quickly taking control of the ball, but it wasn’t to last.
Soon, the best chance of the game fell to The Entrance, who, after a great pass from the right-hand side of the field put Cabarrus in open space, finally saw the flag stay down and, despite Ross’ efforts to make things difficult by charging out, the striker calmly slotted it home to her left to make the score 2-1 and complete The Entrance’s comeback.
As the half went on, The Entrance were firmly in control, and try as they might, the Southern players couldn’t find a way through the brilliant Entrance centre-back pairing of Shelby Wharton and Jasmine Beacroft, who ensured that, while Southern were taking plenty of shots, few of them were high-percentage opportunities, and all of them were confidently dealt with by Maxwell or missed the target altogether.
The heat then began to hinder both sides, and the pace slowed slightly. This is except for Jade Hawes down the left wing for The Entrance, who sprinted along her side all half and looked as if she might never run out of energy, which forced the tiring Southern side to play a lot more defence deep in their half than they would have liked.
These bursts of pressure were enough to see The Entrance through to an impressive come-from-behind victory to start their season, the score remaining at 2-1 come full-time.
Staff from both sides came to similar conclusions post-match, each noting Maxwell’s terrific performance and Southern’s early dominance and ultimate capitulation.
“We thought that Southern were a tough opponent and dominated the first half” said Entrance team manager Hayley Sheen.
“But we came out in the second half and really took it to them, and we think we definitely won possession stats in the second half.
“Our keeper made some really important saves throughout the match and deservingly won player of the match for us”.
Coach of Southern-Ettalong Emmanual Papi echoed these sentiments.
“I think we played some really good football in the first twenty to thirty minutes, we’re still trying to find our identity as we’re going through a rebuilding phase” he said.
“Full credit goes to the Entrance, their goalkeeper was absolutely fantastic. At times, it felt like she was a magnet to the ball.”
Match Official – Peter Hall
Written by Mark Goodyear
Women’s Division 1 Results –
Men’s Division 1 Results –
