Wyoming 6 – 0 Umina
Our match of the round this week took place between Wyoming and Umina on a slippery Alan Davidson oval.
It was a fast-paced and attacking game that ultimately saw a clinical Wyoming side win big.
From the kick-off, the game was played at a blistering pace, with Umina charging down the right wing and Wyoming cleaning up at the back to transition into their own attacks.
This pace would be sustained for almost the entire match, but it wasn’t long before Wyoming began to dominate possession and began to express their dynamic attack.
Their midfield duo, Branko Bojanic and Jordan Stephens, orchestrated Wyoming’s dynamic style. They consistently distributed the ball to the first open man they could spot ahead of them, often their forwards, Reegan Cairns or Brendan Martain.
Playing like this created chances, and it wasn’t long before one was emphatically buried past Oscar Oconnell in the Umina net.
The opener came from Cairns, who found himself through behind the Umina defence thanks to a nice long ball from midfield. Cairns was just inside the right-hand side of the box, but he never even thought of passing, instead striking the ball fiercely across the goal and into the far side of the net to give the Tigers a deserved early lead.
Nearly everything that followed for the rest of the half was dictated by Wyoming. Umina only managed to attack when Wyoming made mistakes, and Wyoming weren’t making many mistakes.
Wyoming’s impressive transition from attack to defence was a key factor in this dominance. They swiftly shifted their focus from hounding the Umina players during their attacks to defending their own goal, leaving no space for Umina to exploit.
This persistence made it feel like it was only a matter of time before it was 2-0, and it soon was.
The second of the day came from a Lachlan Neal corner to the near post that was flicked on by Cairns. Whether by his touch or from the foot of an Umina defender on the line, the ball ended up in the back of the net, and the lead was doubled.
It wasn’t until the closing stages of the first half that Umina started to show some fight, but they finally did.
Their striker Brandon Wiliams came so close to taking one back when Wyoming’s centre-back Jared Mcnee, who had an otherwise excellent game, rushed out of his line to make a clearance only to miss the ball.
Wiliams pounced and beat two cover defenders as he drove to the box, only to be stopped just before getting his shot off by a brilliant slide tackle from Bryce Mobberley. This proved enough to protect his team’s lead going into halftime.
When the second half started, Umina kept up their good efforts. You could tell they were desperate to get back into the game, and it felt like if they could net one, the whole complexion of the game would change.
And they came so close once again. Williams, with another bright spark, found himself with space down the left wing and made the most of it by putting a great ball into the box that Lachlan Irving couldn’t get on the end of as it rolled past everyone along the face of the goal and the chance fizzled out.
The same would happen again soon after when Williams crossed in a freekick that got to Noah French in front of goal, but he couldn’t sort his feet out, and once again, nothing came of it.
Despite not troubling Joshua Byrnes in the Wyoming goal, these possessions were still big positives for Umina. It felt like a great contest was brewing, making what happened next even more disheartening for the Eagles.
Wyoming began a counterattack that looked to have stalled down the left. Essentially trapped wide of the box, Bojanic played Adam Mitcherson, whose only option appeared to be putting the ball into the crowded penalty box, but he did much more than that.
Completely against the run of play and from a spot on the ground where no one would ever normally shoot, Mitcherson swings the ball over across the goal and into the far side of the net, making it 3-0 in miraculous fashion.
With that, the Umina resistance faded, and Wyoming resumed their dominance, seeing the score rapidly run further in their favour.
In what was almost their very next possession, Cairns, in space down the left, put in a perfect cross to an unmarked Martain in the box, who slotted it calmly past Oconnell, making it 4-0.
Only moments later, they made it five with an almost carbon copy goal again through Cairns and Martain, this time a longer cross to the far post that Martain put away just as well as his first to make it 5-0, leaving Umina shellshocked.
It didn’t stop there either. Umina, struggling to find any answers, just continued to give up the ball, and with Wyoming in such a clinical mood, it was 6-0 in an instant.
Again, Wyoming exploited the Umina left side; this time, Martain was the provider, getting the ball into the middle of the box where substitute Mitchell Meredith tapped it home, completing the rout.
From here, Umina managed to regain composure, but the damage was well and truly done. They did fashion a couple more chances through some good work by Aaron Walters and Darcy Doran, but nothing would come of it, and Wyoming would ride it out to win 6-0.
Speaking to both teams’ coaches, it was clear that they both saw the contest as much more even than the scoreline suggested.
Wyoming’s player-coach, Ian McAndrew, was happy with his returning players and is looking forward to showing that his side can produce more results like this as the season progresses.
“The game was very even to start, and Umina put pressure on us, but getting players back to being almost full strength helped a lot”, McAndrew said.
“We have started to slow this season, but after this performance, I hope we keep rolling on to start to stamp our dominance.”
Umina’s coach, Cameron Stone, reflected on his side’s good effort to start the second half but noted that they needed to find a way to stop playing from behind.
“We seem to always find ourselves chasing the game, we’re conceding goals early, then try and chase the game, so it’s not ideal starts for us” Stone said.
“We started off the second half well, and then they scored that third goal, and we kind of changed up and went to three at the back to chase the game”.
“We had nothing to lose, so we thought we’d just go for it, maybe jag a goal or two, but it didn’t happen”.
Match Official – Jasper White
Written by Mark Goodyear
Men’s Division 1 Results –
Women’s Division 1 Results –
