Umina 3 – 1 Gosford
This week’s Division 1 Match of the Round comes from the men’s competition, as the newly crowned Champions, the Umina Eagles, hosted the Gosford City Dragons on Col Gooley Oval.
Gosford came into the round in second place but had an uphill battle against the free-scoring Champions, who have won every match so far this season.
The result was a tight contest that saw the Gosford defence under long stretches of pressure, but briefly it looked like they could steal it until a stunning hat-trick from Christopher Payne turned the game on its head.
The first 10 minutes of the contest were some of the closest of the afternoon, providing a great preview of what was to come.
Umina, when in possession, played the ball rapidly, always looking to progress it to the feet of a teammate. This tactic made for some beautiful and highly intricate passing sequences, as everyone on the Eagles team was constantly a threat.
For Gosford, they looked mainly to transition instantly with long balls to their left winger, Marcus Warwick, and on a handful of occasions, they sprinted it through midfield when Umina had overcommitted and left the centre understaffed.
However, in these early stages, the backlines for both teams proved that they weren’t going to be beaten easily, with Rio Leasa and Jay De Courcy, the centre-backs for the Eagles, handling Gosford’s long passes effectively.
While for the visitors, their centre-backs, Benjamin Runge and Emerson Baratto, were forced into some terrific last-ditch tackles to prevent the Umina attack from breaking through.
This defence led to a stalemate in the early period. When Umina attacking midfielder Aaron Walters took the first shot of the afternoon, it was a long-distance strike that went wide to the left, a clear representation of just how tight this game was.
Soon enough, the chances began to come, and Payne, the former A-League and NPL star, became the genesis.
The first great Umina chance of many came when Payne played a glorious ball through the air from the right wing to Walters down the left. The Umina number 10 held it for a moment, then played it back to Payne as he charged into the box. Once there, Payne drove towards the right post and forced Gosford keeper Ethan Giles into a scrambling save.
Gosford then demonstrated their counter-attacking threat when a successful long ball found their right wing-back, Zac Hillock. He skilfully took the ball wide and advanced towards the byline before cutting it back to Warwick, who would have been able to tap it in if not for a last-second intervention from a Umina defender.
Umina would now have a chance to counter, and Payne took full advantage once he was on the ball in the final third. There, Payne played a classy ball into the box for Hayden Tucker, who shot the ball in a bit of space across his body looking for the bottom left corner, earning a fingertips save from Giles that was cleaned up by his defence.
Slowly, it began to feel like a matter of when, not if, Umina would score as proceedings went heavily in their favour, but nothing would break the deadlock.
A Chance fell to Payne’s partner up top, Jack Driscoll, but Runge cut him off as he looked to get into the box. Then, all three of their key attackers, Payne, Driscoll, and Walters, would combine to earn the latter a shot on goal, but Giles would save that effort.
Then, a corner from the right taken by Payne was powerfully struck towards goal from the edge of the box by De Courcy, but Giles again would tip it over the bar.
Such was the nature of the back end of the opening half; Gosford just refused to concede, and while they didn’t fashion many high-quality chances of their own, their impeccable defence felt like it had to pay dividends later.
Halftime came with the game still locked at 0-0, a surely unusual scenario for Umina, who had scored 95 goals to this point; however, the second half would bring them closer to the unfathomable figure of 100 goals.
At the beginning of the second half, it seemed like Umina would continue to struggle to score.
Walters intercepted the ball from Gosford near the edge of the final third and made a perfect pass to his wing-back, Mathew Fulwood, running down the left side. Fulwood then delivered a lovely cross into the box for Payne, who attempted to head it toward the far post but sent it wide instead.
Gosford would finally relieve some pressure with a half chance when Jackson Jacobs dribbled past a man, allowing him to play Nicholas Booth centrally. Booth, in close quarters, got the ball to Warwick, allowing the forward to shoot low and hard, but it wasn’t enough to challenge Corey Hubbard in the gloves for Umina.
This would be the final involvement for Warwick, who came off injured and was replaced by Callan Davie, and this would mark a turning point.
Gosford would now begin to look much more dangerous on the counter than before, as Davie and Booth would stand on halfway and wait for the clearances to find them.
These direct passes had been their plan all along, but now, for whatever reason, Umina weren’t dealing with it as well as before.
Soon enough, one fast break resulted in a foul and a Dragon’s free kick just inside the final third, and Davie stepped up to take it.
The substitute sent the ball into the top of the Umina wall, which sent it spinning high into the air. Once it came back down, only one head was there to meet it, that of Gosford’s Kevin Gallagher, who nodded it home with great composure to stun the home crowd and make it 1-0.
Some of the best football of the match was played from this point as both teams appeared to be in perpetual motion, each looking to counter the strengths and exploit the weaknesses of the other, but it would be the star man, Payne, who would make the difference, and what a difference maker he is.
The Eagles’ opener began with a skilful cross-field dribble by Tucker, who received the ball on the left and took it to the right. Once there, he played his right winger, Darcy Doran, who dragged the Gosford line deeper as he drove to the byline, but once there, he laid it behind him to right-back Ollie Jones, who now had time and space. Jones took full advantage of the room by composing himself, then sending in a pinpoint cross into the box towards Payne, who, without a second thought, volleyed it home spectacularly into the top right of the net for 1-1.
Payne would then attempt to top that remarkable effort from a free kick, slightly to the left of the penalty spot and back far enough that it was a shooting opportunity, but a low percentage one.
That didn’t dissuade Payne, who stood over the ball as if he had never intended to loop it into the box, and he didn’t. He shot a thundering strike into the top left corner, making it 2-1, a goal unsavable for Giles.
The local fans were now in raptures, but they didn’t know that it would soon get even better for their side.
Gosford now needed another goal and committed everyone forward to get it, which allowed Payne to complete his hat-trick with the final goal of the match.
Once Umina diffused a Gosford attack, their clearance fell to Payne, who ran from inside his half to stay onside.
Now inside enemy territory, but with no one anywhere near him, Payne took it towards the goal to be one-on-one with Giles. The Dragon’s keeper valiantly attempted to rush Payne, but he had one more trick up his sleeve as he performed a perfectly weighted chip over the keeper into the net to seal a magical hat-trick and make it 3-1.
Full-time would soon follow, and the Champions would officially make it 16 wins from 16 games, one step closer to being invincible.
While the valiant Gosford side would fall to third on the ladder after Doyalson beat Woy Woy 4-3.
Speaking to Gosford coach Shea Taylor after the match, he was happy with his side’s performance and paid credit to Payne and Umina for their win.
“I felt we defensively did really well, we got our goal. I was about to change the formation and park the bus, but then the A-League super star stepped up, didn’t he? He made the difference”. Taylor said.
“At the same time, I want to give plaudits to all my squad with four first teamers missing as well.
“At the end of the day, they are the benchmark we’ve competed with them twice, and I believe it shows we can compete and beat them, we just couldn’t nullify them and close it out”.
He finished by calling Emerson Baratto “Mr Versatile” as he played the whole game at centre-back and did himself proud filling in for some of the injuries Gosford are facing.
While Umina coach Pete Graham praised the match as a whole and commended his star player for his finishing.
“Today was a really tight match, it was fantastic football from both sides, as first and second should be, so really proud”, Graham said.
“In the second half, we found ourselves behind, but then we had another gear to go to and we ended up scoring three”.
“An absolute feature of the match was Chris Payne’s finishing, he scored the hat-trick to win us the game. Not only were they goals but they were fantastically taken”.
“Just really proud of the fight, considering we’d already won the competition, really proud of the fight that we have and the fact that we could come back from being down in the second half to clearly winning it 3-1, which was fantastic”.
Writen by Mark Goodyear
All Round 17 Results –
