Terrigal 2 – 3 East Gosford
A Tahlor Thackray hattrick saw East Gosford hand Terrigal their first loss of the season in the ultimate showdown of WPL as Jorge Chavez and East Gosford claim the title of 2023 WPL Premiers for the first time in the club’s sixty-year history.
In very hot and demanding conditions, East Gosford started the better of the two teams as Jorge Chavez’s side looked to slip into their normal rhythm of playing out from the back and building their way into the contest.
Terrigal, coming off a high of their Reserve Grade side being crowned Premiers in the game before, looked dangerous whenever going forward with the attacking prowess of Candice Phelan keeping the Rams backline on their toes at all times.
Playing out from the back time after time, East Gosford finally broke the deadlock 30 minutes into the contest after the ball was played out wide to Kelly Hogan who crossed the ball first time to teammate Tahlor Thackray.
Tahlor’s perfect first touch saw her evade her defender and carry the ball into the box where only the Terrigal goalkeeper stood in her way as she clinically finished into the bottom left corner to give the Rams a 1-0 lead.
However, like their last meeting, Terrigal responded almost instantly after the O’lasses captain Caitlin Johnston played a ball over the top to Candice Phelan who used her body well to strike a first-time shot at the Rams keeper which was parried to the feet of Abbie Kitchener who was quick to anticipate and slot home the equaliser for the League Champions.
Both sides continued to create some half chances in the opening period looking for that next important goal but the trying conditions saw fatigue start to set in as the halftime whistle sounded and the score remained 1-1.
The second period again saw both teams push each other to the limits looking for the breakthrough goal. Twenty minutes into the second half, a ball played over the defensive line of Terrigal saw Tahlor Thackray pick the ball up in the box as she was eventually fouled and awarded a penalty as a result. Tahlor calmly stepped up and converted to put the Rams ahead once again.
Terrigal showed their championship spirit as they searched for a quick equaliser and they pushed more players forward as time started to run out for the League Champs. However, a quick counterattack started by Kelly Hogan saw the ball eventually land at the feet of Tahlor who was placed on the outside of the box.
Tahlor took two touches to guide the ball onto her left foot before smashing the ball into the back of the net for the third time, securing her hattrick and giving East Gosford a 3-1 lead with less than 10 minutes to play.
There would still be some late drama as Gab Blanch darted into the box and was brought down as the official awarded a late penalty to Terrigal. Captain Caitlin Johnston coolly sent the Rams keeper the wrong way to give her side a late lifeline.
Nonetheless, it was not meant to be for Terrigal as time ran out and East Gosford were crowned the 2023 WPL Grand Final winners.
“East Gosford got the better of us, on the day that it meant the most for them,” spoke Gab Blanch.
“We’ve had five highly competitive battles with them this season, today was no different.
I feel the playing conditions affected us today, and East Gosford just wanted it that little bit more.”
“I’m proud of the girls, they fought to the end. Congratulations to Jorge and the girls,” commented Gab.
An ecstatic Jorge Chavez reflected on the year as a whole and how special this win means to everyone involved. “It was a year of the next player in, we had to deal with so many injuries and players’ availability all year and the final series was no different with two key players missing from our starting line-up come GF Day. Nevertheless, I was confident in our squad depth and knew that whoever stepped foot on that pitch would not let us down.”
“It takes a lot of work from so many to be able to achieve what we did this year at East Gosford. My right-hand man Steve like always put in so many hours behind the scenes analysis video footage of our games against Terrigal to help us come up with a winning gameplan for the day. It was the league’s best defence against the league’s best-attacking team. We knew that Terrigal wouldn’t change much tactically hence we were able to exploit the few weaknesses in their formation as we created numerous scoring opportunities early in the game.”
Jorge also added, “I am so proud of all the girls. Many won’t know but we had three playing injured and a few playing sick on the day and for them to play the full 90 minutes in that heat was amazing. I believe we have had over a dozen different goal scorers in first grade this year, but it took only one come GF Day with Tahlor showing the coast what a talent she is scoring a hattrick!”
“When you look at the goals though you can see multiple players involved in the build-up play, especially our third goal, showing just how unselfish we were and put the team first. Full credit to Terrigal who kept pushing us until the end, even when 3-1 down they managed to score a pen to give us a nervous final five minutes. We changed formation and were able to hold them out.”
“Again, I want to thank everyone at the club from the committee, volunteers, players, and coaches for putting in the effort into building women’s football at East Gosford. To my assistant coach Steve and Manager Becky words can’t explain how grateful I am for all you did these past few years. WE DID IT!”
Match Official – Hugo Fonseca