Match of the Round
Southern & Ettalong 5 – 0 Kanwal
A firm James Brown Oval surface along with icy, blustery conditions welcomed the two sides for this important 2nd vs 3rd clash. Southern, back playing at home for the first time in 9 weeks, were looking to get the points in front of their local supporters who braved the cold.
Kanwal started the match well, but only 8 minutes in, Southern defender Jack Jenkins advanced down the right of the field and clipped a delightful ball over the Kanwal defence, where an advancing Brock Van Aalderen latched on to the pass, drove into the box only to be taken out by the Kanwal defender and a penalty was awarded.
Set piece specialist Jacob Lepre calmly sent the Kanwal keeper Kurtis Mahon the wrong way and finished in the opposite corner for a 1-0 lead for the home side.
The game then developed into a back-and-forth battle, with both sides putting some good passing sequences together, despite the tricky playing conditions.
Kanwal came very close to equalising in the 30th minute when a wicked low cross in from the Kanwal right side was initially dealt with by Southern GK Alex Wardle, only to make its way to the Kanwal left winger, as Wardle made another superb close-range save.
Kanwal would pay for this missed chance just two minutes later, when young Southern attacker Jack Wilson evaded a few tackles and drove forward, only to be fouled 30 yards from goal.
From the resulting free kick, Lepre again showed the danger he possesses, curling a firm strike over Mahon and high into the net, doubling his team’s lead and taking his personal tally for the season to 13 goals.
The game again settled into an even battle, with both sides creating some half-chances. The closest of these came on the stroke of halftime, with Kanwal’s Callum Dunkerley arrowing his corner towards the Lion’s goal.
Southern defender Preston Daniel protected his near post well, heading the ball away from the top corner and keeping his side’s 2-0 lead intact heading into the halftime break.
Kanwal came out of the sheds determined to claw their way back into the game and were making things difficult for the home defence. Attacking down the flanks, the Bulls flighted multiple crosses which caused chaos in the Southern box, though each time the home defence and GK were able to scramble the ball away.
The Southern custodian Wardle was immense in this period, making his best save in the 60th minute, denying Kanwal’s Rory Rizzi-Lutgerink with another top-shelf close-range block after Rory managed to wiggle his way past the defence and be 8 yards out with the goal at his mercy.
Kanwal GK Mahon also came up with some big moments. None bigger than the one on 65 minutes, when Southern Captain Todd Balneaves, who had a towering performance at the back for the lions, curled a 60m long ball up and around the Kanwal defence to the onrushing Jack Ellwood, who fired his first-time strike towards goal from 10 yards, only for Mahon to make a brilliant block to keep the bulls in the game.
It was Southern who managed to get the next goal in the 70th minute with Jack Ellwood intercepting a pass out from the Kanwal defence, finding Lepre, who in turn put substitute Alfie Martin into a 1v1 scenario with the fullback.
Martin managed to beat his opponent, drive to the byline and square the ball to young attacker Van Aalderen, who made no mistake from two yards and gave the Lions a commanding 3-0 lead.
5 minutes later, Van Aalderen had a great opportunity to get on the scoresheet again after a Balneaves long throw was flicked on by Ellwood, but Van Aalderen could only direct his header onto the base of the far post.
Van Aalderen did eventually add to his tally for the day 10 minutes from full time, when from a midfield throw-in, substitute Nathan Baker flicked the ball over the Bulls’ defence to the speedy Van Aalderen, who rounded the goalkeeper, to score his second of the day.
The scoring didn’t quite end there, on 89 minutes Southern were again able to break up a Kanwal attack at halfway and release Baker in behind the defence to be one-on-one with Mahon.
Baker expertly dinked the ball past the onrushing keeper into the empty net to round out the goals for the day and send the local crowd home happy.
“Today was very tough, due to both the conditions and the opposition,” explained Matt Page. “We managed to convert some of our chances at the start and the end of the match, but that middle hour of the game was a real arm wrestle with Kanwal giving as good as they got.”
“It was great to be playing back at home again after a few months away. Scoring some goals, and more importantly, keeping another clean sheet made for a pretty pleasing day for our supporters.”
Page also stated, “Kanwal are a good side, and we look forward to locking horns with them again in two weeks. Before then though, our focus shifts towards what I expect to be a very desperate and determined Budgewoi next week.”
Match Official – Jasper White
Terrigal 1 – 0 East Gosford
Heading into this round 14 fixture, both sides had plenty to play for, Terrigal looking to keep in touch with the top four while their opponents East Gosford were looking to secure vital points in their fight for survival.
In another fixture relocated due to poor ground conditions at Duffy’s Oval, the game was moved to reliably dry Pat Morley #3 as the bumpy surface and howling winds made for difficult conditions.
The first half was an extremely tense end-to-end battle, although there were no clear-cut chances, it was an entertaining battle between the two sides. At halftime, a few tweaks to formation were made for the O’lads, who were hoping to find the go-ahead goal.
Five minutes into the second period, Dean Heffernan had a free kick in the perfect position. Heffernan sent a vicious shot toward goal, that the East Gosford keeper couldn’t deal with as he was looking into the low setting sun, knocking it into the path of big Max Vegter for the tap-in.
With that goal, the game opened up a bit more, East Gosford looking to use their speedy front three, but the Terrigal back line were staunch repelling them time after time.
In the 70th minute, Terrigal winger Haydn Harris drove hard into the box, knocked the ball beyond the keeper and was brought down, but was waved away by the official.
As the game died down, a second yellow to East Gosford’s Lachlan Gunn saw them down to 10 men for the remainder of the contest, making their job all the more difficult.
In the end, 1-0 was the result, an important win for the O’lads to get back on track, but also for a large supporter base who turned up for their Old Boys Day.
“Thank you again to The Entrance for hosting us on short notice,” said Ryan Pearce.
“I’m immensely proud of the boy’s efforts after a gruelling midweek game. It was far from our best footballing performance, but we were resilient in defence and that’s what it takes to win games.”
Pearce also commented on the opposition. “Credit to East Gosford they played some effective football in patches and worked very hard to put us under pressure. They are a good side and will have some results fall their way soon.”
“For my squad it was a great 9-point Sunday, putting some confidence and belief back into us leading into the pointy end of the year.”
Despite coming up short, Troy Ward was pleased with how his team conducted themselves. “Pretty proud of the fight the lads showed once being reduced to 10 men.”
“To continue to hold Terrigal out is a credit to the lads and the desire to still push on and go for results I can’t fault. Bring on the next game in a few weeks as I think they know they escaped with a win here today and were pushed all the way for it too.”
Match Official – Christopher Robinson
Budgewoi 1 – 2 Woongarrah
The two promoted MPL teams from last year went to battle for the first time this season as Woongarrah got revenge for their grand final loss last year as the Wildcats are now just one point off first place despite their slow start to the season.
The opening 15 minutes of the contest was back and forth with both sides getting accustomed to the slippery pitch and difficult wind.
Around the 20-minute mark, a throw in Budgewoi’s final third would find Jacob Melling who would beat his defender and cross the ball to an unmarked Aj Henderson in the box who would hit a first-time volley that would fly into the corner of the goals to give Woongarrah a 1-0 lead.
The next ten minutes of the game would revert back to the same back-and-forth play with plenty of half chances for both sides.
In the 35th minute, James Stiffle would find himself one-on-one only for the goalie to make a great save to keep it at 1-0. Woongarrah would continue to push to double their lead before the break but would fall just short.
The second period was less than five minutes old as a mistake in the Woongarrah backline would give Jose Atayde an opportunity as Atayde did extremely well when pouncing on the error to riffle into the top of the net and take the game back level.
This would lift Budge and for the next ten minutes they would throw everything at Woongarrah, but the Wildcats managed to keep them at bay.
Woongarrah would play themselves back into the contest and in the 57th minute Daniel Ott would have the ball come to him around the Budgie box after a failed clearance, he would calmly slot the ball into the top corner of the goal to restore the lead for his team.
Budgewoi would get a penalty to level the score, but Corey Hedges would deny Ty Warby with a fantastic save.
As time started to run out for the home side, the game remained end to end but we Woongarrah would be the ones who managed to walk away with the three points.
A proud Luke Rogers spoke on the encounter. “Haydn and his boys are always a tough game at their home field. It was a good contest between the two sides for the entirety of the match.”
“Really pleased with how my lads adapted to the conditions. We defended well as a team and created some good goal-scoring opportunities. We can build off that performance and hopefully improve on it.”
Match Official – Luke Dunkerley
Woy Woy 0 – 0 Berkeley Vale
A windy Austin Butler Oval welcomed these two teams at opposite ends of the table for their round 14 clash as last-place Woy Woy were able to keep the league leaders Berkely Vale scoreless for the first time this year as the Roosters recorded their first point since round 9.
Far from ideal conditions were always going to make it a tough game for the Wombats as the visitors struggled on a less-than-ideal surface than what they are accustomed to playing on and the style they like to play with.
An exceptional display in goals by Jack Arigho and some bad luck with multiple shots hitting the woodwork stopped Berkeley Vale from taking home another win.
The contest played out as expected from a first verse last clash with the Wombats maintaining the majority of the possession and Woy Woy set up to defend.
Midway through the first half Felix Beed struck a thunderous shot that hit the crossbar and appeared to cross the line before bouncing back into the field of play with no goal awarded. Minutes later a Jakeb Brownlow shot hit the post and Woy Woy once again survived.
The second half was much of the same as Berkeley camped themselves in the Woy Woy back third but couldn’t convert any opportunity with Arigho pulling off at least six one-on-one situations to keep the scores level for the entire ninety minutes.
“Credit to Woy Woy, they had a plan and stuck to it,” voiced Mark Pratt.
Match Official – Trent Dickeson
Avoca 0 – 2 Killarney
Killarney bounced back to their winning ways following a mid-week hiccup to hand Avoca their tenth loss of the year as the Terriers keep within touching distance of the top four.
First half Killarney created quite a few opportunities but were unable to capitalise as they were denied by both good defending and goalkeeping.
Killarney’s first goal of the evening was scored by Ryan Gibson who rushed and closed the opposition keeper down who was trying to play the ball out from the back and the block nestled into the back of the net.
Late in the first half, Terrier’s keeper Declan Drake made a fine reflex save and the follow-up defending from Adam Smith denied Avoca an equaliser.
In the final moments of the opening half, Killarney we were awarded a penalty which Harry Fountain uncharacteristically missed, hitting the post as the ball bounced back into the safeguard of the Avoca goalie.
The second half saw much of the same as the first, a close contest with opportunities arising for both teams.
It was Ryan Gibson again for the Terriers who made his impact on the game, scoring with a header from a Harry Fountain corner to record his ninth goal of his campaign and give Killarney some breathing space at 2-0.
Avoca pushed all they could to find an answer to Killarney, but for the third time in their last four games, Avoca remained scoreless to record their tenth loss of the season.
Chris Ackerley is now focused on his next challenge as he has his sights set on playing finals football. “Onto next week against East Gosford which will be an extremely difficult match, as we need to keep winning to have a chance to finish in the top four.”
“Pleasing win after an exhausting 6 games in 18 days, a game where both sides seemed to be battling the fatigue that the schedule of matches caused. “
Match Official – Preston Lorusso
Golden Boot Standings –
| 13 | Logan Moore (Kanwal), Jacob Lepre (Southern & Ettalong) |
| 10 | Jack Ellwood (Southern & Ettalong) |
| 9 | Ryan Gibson (Killarney), Ashley Henderson (Woongarrah) |
| 8 | Ty Warby (Budgewoi), Oliver Vanderslot (East Gosford) |
| 7 | Jakeb Brownlow (Berkeley Vale), Josh Swadling (Budgewoi) |
Points Table –
Club Championship –
Division 1
Round 14 Results –
Points Table –
Club Championship –
