Woy Woy 2 – 3 Doyalson
This week’s Match of the Round took place on a rainy Austin Butler Oval, where the Woy Woy Roosters hosted the Doyalson-Wyee Wolves.
The hosts entered the round as the only team in Women’s Division 1 with three wins and sat atop the table, while the visitors arrived looking for their second win of the season after securing a victory against Gosford last round.
The match was an unforgettable thriller in the rain. Both teams took turns in the lead, but ultimately, Doyalson emerged victorious for the second consecutive week.
In the early stages, it became apparent that both teams had similar game plans for the afternoon; they wanted to play the ball down the wings.
Woy Woy would showcase the plan first and come so close to opening the scoring when Tasha Lindahl down the right flank for the Roosters plays a perfect ball across the face of goal through the air that Rachel Hill, who made a run to the far post, just missed as she arrived at the goal line.
Doyalson, on the other hand, were more interested in playing it long in these opening tilts, having their wingers charge for the ball into open space in the Roosters’ half. Their left winger, Zoe Johnson, did most of this work, toiling away throughout the match and keeping pressure on the Woy Woy defence during her time on the field.
On more than one occasion, their striker, Destiny Schuck, raced Woy Woy’s keeper Donna Foster to the ball, where Foster would have to carefully use her feet to clear as the ball was beyond the edge of her box.
Overall, it was a fairly even start to the game when an issue arose for the Wolves; their starting attacking midfielder, Kayla Wilson, withdrew from the match injured, with Tamzyn Fittler taking her place less than 20 minutes in.
Fittler would waste no time in getting involved in her side’s attacks, and she created a great chance when Paige Hill, in defence for the Wolves, played her the ball into midfield, where Fittler was able to perfectly play it onto Schuck inside the Rooster’s box.
Schuck sprinted onto the through ball, took it wide towards the byline to the left of goal, and attempted to chip the ball over Foster and into the net, but it sailed just over the bar.
Woy Woy would attempt similar plays, relying on rapid ball movements. However, almost every time the hosts tried to run through the Doyalson defence, their centre-back, Tara Galea, would throw herself into challenges along the ground to win the ball for her side.
Despite this, Woy Woy began taking control of the game around the midpoint of the half. Kelly Maiden hit the crossbar with a shot from inside the box, which was set up by a throw-in won when Galea slid in to prevent Woy Woy striker Cailah Jennett from getting a shot off.
The opening goal would soon follow, and it would be in the form of a counterattack. Hill received the ball in open space after a Wolves attack broke down on the halfway line. Still onside and with no defender directly in front of her, she took a shot on goal from just outside the box and slightly to the left of goal. With a surprising amount of pace on the ball, Doyalson’s goalkeeper, Sarah Veyret, who had previously managed to handle all the long shots from Woy Woy, misjudged this strike. She failed to stop the ball, which slipped through her legs and into the net, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Almost immediately after this, the game was level again in a great act of resilience from the visitors.
The equaliser came when Schuck received the ball on the edge of the Woy Woy box with the centre-backs still in front of her. The striker showed some great footwork to keep the ball, then feigned a shot to draw a challenge that allowed her to have a small gap to shoot through.
It was a brilliant play, and when her shot came, it was just to the left of Foster, who got her fingertips to it, but that was only enough to put it into the corner of the net for 1-1.
Halftime would soon follow, and both teams would be raring to go in the second half, which was exciting from start to finish.
Early on, Doyalson thought they had taken the lead when Caitlin Piggot played a great ball across to Schuck in the box from the right wing. Schuck struck it home, and there was a brief celebration on the bench before realising the ref had called the striker offside in a tight call that left the game even.
Back down the other end, the Roosters retook the lead through a long free kick from around halfway.
As the rain started to pour, the ball soared through the air from the set piece. The Wolves would get to it first, but it took an unfortunate deflection off them and straight into the path of Jennett inside the box and through on goal, where she would make no mistake rolling the ball home past Veyret and into the left side of the goal for 2-1.
From here on out, Woy Woy would mainly play on the counter, but they nearly found a third when Hill played Jessica Wust down the left flank.
Wust brilliantly drove the ball towards the goal from out wide, battling off her defender as she did. When she arrived in the box, she struck a shot that looked destined for the top corner left at first, but it continued rising just over the crossbar.
Doyalson could not afford to go further behind, meaning now was the time to do whatever they could to claw back control. So they turned to their bench, where a returning Ashley Sweetnam was subbed on, and the game began to change.
Sweetnam’s first significant involvement came from a corner, which was played deep to her on the right side of the field. This allowed her to swing the ball towards the back post straight onto Hill’s head on the goal line. It was a spectacular cross, but Hill’s shot went just over the bar.
After this, the Woy Woy defence settled the game down for a spell. Maiden was playing exceptionally well as she stopped the Wolves’ attack from building any genuine momentum. Krystle Todhunter also contributed to this, and between the two of them, as the rain started to get even heavier, it seemed like they might hold out the final 20 minutes to get the win.
But such a dramatic atmosphere deserved a much more dramatic finish than that, and a magical goal from way outside the box would ensure we got one.
The second equaliser of the afternoon arrived when Sweetnam played Piggot centrally into the Roosters’ box. Now playing striker with Schuck moved to the left wing, Piggot took control of the ball, but had nowhere to go with no space in front of her, so she played it back to Sweetnam.
In open space, Sweetnam received the ball to the right of the goal around the edge of the final third of the field, and she shot. The ball went into the air, cutting through the swirling rain and dipping perfectly over Foster’s head and into the net for 2-2.
Now, with both teams entirely on the attack again, it was never going to be long until another goal was scored, and with under 15 minutes to go, Doyalson would take their first lead of the afternoon.
The fifth and final goal of the match arrived when a mix-up at the back caused the ball to roll into the path of Schuck on the left wing.
The Forward ran onto the ball on the left side of the box as the defender scrambled after it, but before anyone could attempt to block the shot, Schuck chipped the ball up and over Foster to earn her brace and send the Wolves fans into a frenzy as the scoreline became 3-2.
Now doing everything they could to get back on level terms, the Roosters would have a blur of half chances to finish the match.
The atmosphere on the ground was electric, and several times it seemed like Woy Woy would equalise, as Doyalson struggled to get the ball past the halfway line. This was mainly due to the strong performance of the centre-backs and Vanessa Quick in the Woy Woy midfield, who consistently won back possession whenever their team lost the ball.
But the goal never came, and as the rain began to ease slightly, full-time sounded and Doyalson secured their second win of the season.
Speaking with Wolves coach Ryan Tanti after the match, he said he was pleased with his side’s resilience and singled out some players who he felt made the difference.
“I thought my girls showed a lot of resilience and composure today, which was most pleasing,” Tanti said.
“The girls are starting to see how good they can be, and we are building nicely and heading in the right direction.
“A great team effort today, but for me, our player of the match, Zoe Johnson, had an outstanding game today. She is starting to reap the rewards of the hard work she puts in. Well done, Zoe.
“I thought Tamzyn Fittler had a great game also, being brought on so early in the game, she controlled our midfield very well”.
Woy Woy coach Stephen Troilo commended both sets of players for an exciting match in difficult conditions.
“It was a cracking game between two teams having a real crack at trying to win the game”, Troilo began.
“Credit to Ryan and his players on getting the result yesterday, and credit to both teams to play the football they played and create the amount of chances and goals they did, considering the state of the pitch, which wasn’t conducive to good football”
When asked about his team’s overall start, he commended his players and noted that the future looked bright.
“The overall attitude of and commitment from the players so far has been really good
“But also, what’s exciting is I know we are nowhere near the finished article, we’ve got a heck of a lot of upswing in terms of our performance to go”.
Match Official – William Smith
Women’s Division 1 Results –
Men’s Division 1 Results –
