The Entrance 2 – 3 Gosford
Finally, back from rain delays, our Division 1 Match of the Round for round 9 was a clash between the fourth-placed Entrance Bateau Bay Eagles and the second-placed Gosford City Dragons on Pat Morley Oval.
The match was a scrappy affair in which both sides had chances to take a share of the points, but ultimately, it was Gosford that emerged victorious, holding off a late surge from the hosts to win 3-2.
The start for The Entrance was perfect, scoring within the first 5 minutes of the contest.
The opener arrived when a corner kick from the right side by the Eagles was cleared out of the box and returned to their right wingback, Jackson Whitfield.
Whitfield received the ball in space, right at the edge of the penalty area, and took advantage of the moment to deliver a perfect cross past the defenders to the back post. There, his centre-back, Stanley Eaton, battled for his position and managed to head the ball into the underside of the crossbar and into the net, making it 1-0.
Gosford would then spark to life in search of an equaliser, and it was their right wingback, Emerson Baratto, who would do a lot of the searching.
Baratto had a lot of open space in front of him down the right flank for most of the half and so nearly provided an assist for teammate Kevin Gallagher with a cross from deep, but it sailed just over his head and out of play.
Gosford would keep up this pressure, but a steady Entrance defence for the opening stages didn’t allow them much, and it was on the counter that the Dragons would level things back up.
The chance initially fell the way of the Eagles from another right-sided corner. The ball came in and was lost in a sea of boots before ultimately being struck towards goal by Eagles striker Callum Guy, low and towards the right post. The shot was stopped by Gosford goalkeeper Ethan Giles, who made a smart save with his feet. Following this, the ball was now bouncing around everywhere until Dragon’s centre-back, Benjamin Runge, belted it clear and instantly put his side on the attack.
Runge’s clearance fell straight into the path of his forward, Marcus Warwick, who used his sheer pace to get around his man and get it beyond what remained back of the Entrance defence. Once around, Warwick drove into the box and made no mistake as Eagles keeper Jake Beard rushed him, calmly rolling it by into the net for 1-1.
This goal was part of an exciting period for Warwick, who terrorised the Eagle’s defence for the middle portion of the half, and soon enough, he would contribute again to put the Dragons in front.
First, the attacker would win his side a corner by running onto a tidy pass from the right by Gallagher and earning a great save by Beard low towards the near post.
Warwick would take the corner and place it dangerously by the goal line, where it found the head of an Eagles defender who couldn’t get it high enough to go over the bar and made it 2-1 to Gosford with an own goal.
The Entrance would look for their own equaliser in the closing minutes of the half, but Gosford defended their advantage smartly, leaving it 2-1 to the visitors at halftime.
The messiest goal of the match occurred shortly after the break. A shot from Gosford, taken from the right side, was fumbled at the near post by the goalkeeper, Beard. This led to a scramble between both teams for the ball in the box.
An Entrance defender managed to get to the ball first and cleared it off the line. However, his clearance went directly into the path of the onrushing Baratto, rebounding off the wingback and into the net. As a result, Gosford took a 3-1 lead in an unfortunate turn of events for the Eagles.
One great chance did fall the host’s way when Brayden Kenney stole the ball high in the Dragon’s backline for The Entrance. Kenny was instantly through on goal and stormed into the box before looking to place his shot into the bottom left corner, but Giles, again with his feet, just stretched out enough to tip the ball around the post; it was a fantastic save.
However, despite this chance, Gosford had controlled the game for the most part to this point, largely due to the efforts of Runge and Mark Johnstone in defence, who kept the Eagles’ counter-attack at bay.
Yet, now down two goals, The Entrance began to get more expansive, and it marked one especially notable change: Central Coast Mariners legend and A-League Champion Joshua Rose, who had been playing in defence until this point, moved up to lead the line, and momentum swung.
Eagles attacker Casey Gannon epitomised this shift, as he began to consistently get the ball in space down the left wing for The Entrance.
With more control came more chances for the hosts, and soon enough, they would grab a goal back.
The score became 3-2 through another own goal from another cross into the box. This time around, it was from a deep freekick from the right-hand side of the field taken by Jimmy Miller, who got the ball into a dangerous area where, very similar to the other own goal, a Dragons defender headed it into his own net.
Now down only one goal, the Eagles’ faithful on the sidelines felt there was a point available in this contest, and their team did everything they could to secure the result.
Rose now began to make an impact on the match, but it wouldn’t be him who would be decisive; it would be the gloveman Giles.
Storming into the left side of the box, Rose took the ball and went to play it across goal to the far side of the box, but as he got it in the air, it struck the arm of a retreating Johnstone, and the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty.
Rose stepped up to take the spot kick and aim for the right of goal, but Giles made a heroic save to his left, diving across and keeping the ball out to maintain the lead.
That wouldn’t be the only decisive save; moments later, Rose was played through again, this time courtesy of some spectacular ball control from Dylan Rose in the Eagles’ midfield, who got onto a bouncing ball in the final third and turned it into a lovely pass for Rose.
Rose got onto it in space in the box and struck the still-bouncing ball low towards the near post on the left, but Giles was again there to deny him.
Beard between The Entrance posts would also make some classy saves late in the piece, keeping out a powerful strike from Joshua Kay and making it a double save when it was chipped back towards him by Callan Davie.
Things would calm down a touch from here as some fresh legs for Gosford steadied the ship and allowed them to emerge with a 3-2 victory.
Speaking to Gosford coach Shea Taylor after the match, he reflected on what was a challenging game for his side and gave credit to his opposition.
“I believe (the goal) in the first 10 minutes was against the run of play, and then I think we found our zone”, Taylor began.
“But at the same time, I feel The Entrance really dug deep and made it hard for us, and with the penalty miss, I think the luck was in it for us this week.
“We were missing one of our main inspirational players in Andrew Morris, who was a massive loss today, and Henry Rogers as well, but other than that credit to The Entrance, we ended up coming away with the win, but it could’ve gone either way to be fair”.
Written by Mark Goodyear
All Round 9 Results –
