The Entrance 0 – 4 Doyalson
This week’s match of the round took place on Pat Morley Oval as The Entrance faced off against Doyalson in Men’s Division One.
It was an intense and physical battle on a rain-soaked ground, where a formidable Doyalson team gradually built towards a commanding victory.
The Entrance began the game with an aggressive press that troubled the Doyalson defenders looking to progress the ball, but this didn’t last long.
Once the game settled, it was clear both sides wanted to play down their wings, and the match quickly became a battle over who would succeed in that first.
The Entrance’s Brayden Kenny, who operated down the right wing in the first half, came close to striking first blood. He almost managed to get behind the Doyalson line into the box but was fouled on the edge by Blake Rutherford, leading to a freekick the Eagles couldn’t capitalise on.
Next, it was Doyalson’s turn to probe the box when Christopher Gavin played a neat pass to Karl Gavin in the box. However, a great effort from the last defender back, Erik Hodge, forced him to lay it off to Ethan Denis, who put the ball over the bar.
At this juncture, the game felt very evenly poised, but it wouldn’t last long, as around halfway into the half, the Wolves struck a damaging blow to the Eagles’ resistance.
It came when Doyalson won a seemingly innocuous freekick just inside the final third of their attacking half. It would have taken an exceptional strike to score from it, but it did seem worth a try, so Karl Gavin stepped up and belted it into the wall, where it fell straight to Luke Evans on the edge of the box.
With no one closing him down, Evans took a chance and shot the ball hard and fast straight into Matthew Sheen in goals for The Entrance; it seemed like that would be that, but the ball suddenly bounced off Sheen and into the back of the net, making it 1-0 in tragic fashion for the Eagles.
From here, The Entrance began to struggle against the relentless pressure Doyalson put on them when they had the ball. The Wolves were simply hounding them into making mistakes as they looked to cement themselves on top.
The Entrance game plan was to use Aaron Gallen in the middle of the park to activate their wingers further up the field, but that’s a challenging task when you don’t have the time to pick the right pass, and Doyalson weren’t giving them any time.
When the Eagles did look good, it mainly came from faster breaks where the wingers got the ball early; that’s when Kenny and his partner down the left, Rory Mitchell, looked the most dangerous. However, that didn’t happen often, and as such, The Entrance struggled to create chances.
Doyalson, on the other hand, were moving through the gears and seemed to be getting better by the second as their attackers started to work in perfect tandem.
They created the final big chance of the half when Evans, who found himself on the left after a short corner play, whipped the ball into the box and straight onto the head of Christopher Gavin, who made clean contact with the ball but sent it wide of the far post leaving Sheen untroubled leaving the score 1-0 at the half.
With the resumption of the game, Doyalson continued to get more expansive, and in an instant, their lead was doubled.
This time, Evans crossed a ball from the right wing into the box where Christopher Gavin was waiting again. This time he made no mistake and nodded the ball home, making it 2-0.
Whatever plan The Entrance had formulated was now significantly hampered by this fast start, and it showed in the game as Doyalson were now firmly in control.
Soon enough, the lead increased again, with their third goal perfectly encapsulating how well their three forwards were playing.
The move started when Denis played through Karl Gavin in behind the Eagle’s defence, who drove down the left in line with the box before sliding in a perfect pass to Evans in the middle, who instantly shot; his effort was saved by Sheen only for it to fall straight back into the path of Gavin who tapped it in to make it 3-0.
This trio of players combined constantly throughout the game for the Wolves, and this was a great reward for their stellar performance, but it didn’t end there.
Doyalson would make it four when Denis got played in one-on-one with Sheen and finished it smartly between the keeper’s legs to make it one goal apiece for the front three and 4-0 on the scoreboard.
In contrast, The Entrance were still struggling to make any attacking headway. They did have some solid possessions through Blake Steuart, who was now on their right wing, and Kenny, who was now playing down the left and tried everything he could to get his side going, but to no avail.
Their best shot of the game came from a freekick taken by Jack Watson, who struck the ball cleanly around the wall and on target, only for it to be saved by a diving Ashley Wilson in the gloves for Doyalson.
Though a decent chunk of time remained, the rain returned, and the game began to be plagued by stoppages, seeing the flow the Wolves had settled into dissipate and the game grind to its conclusion without any twists, ending 4-0 to the visitors.
Match Official – Adam Neville
Written by Mark Goodyear
Men’s Division 1 Results –
Women’s Division 1 Results –
