Match of the Round
Kahibah FC 3-1 Thornton Redbacks FC
Sunday’s match of the round clash at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility saw Kahibah FC defeat Thornton Redbacks 3-1.
That game was initially set to be played at Kahibah Oval but it was rescheduled to be played on the synthetic pitch after rain washed out the venue.
The loss of the home-ground advantage did not affect Kahibah in their pursuit of the second spot on the table.
Kahibah opened the scoring in the 31st minute when Tyson Masters charged onto a cross and produced a tidy near-stick finish.
The scoreline shifted to 2-0 on the stroke of half-time when Kahibah won a free kick just outside the 18-yard box and Dan Byrne stepped up and buried it to double his side’s advantage.
Thornton had created a few chances in the first half and they finally capitalised on one in the 56th minute when Mo Diop got onto a Pat Wand cross and put his shot away to get the Redbacks back within one goal.
But it was short-lived as Riley Ferguson made the score 3-1 from the penalty spot in the 61st minute after Logan Watson had handled the ball on the line to deny a goal from a corner kick on the hour-mark and was sent off.
That was the final goal of the game as Kahibah held out a 10-man Thornton side during the final 30 minutes to earn the three points, something neither side was able to do at Thornton Park earlier in the week when the two teams drew 1-1 in a rescheduled round eight match.
Winning coach Mat Moncrieff was happy with the result but thought his side had more in them in terms of performance.
“We didn’t play as good as we did on Tuesday night, but we got a result today and we didn’t on Tuesday,” Moncrieff said.
“We played some good footy, but Thornton was probably better. They were better today than they were on Tuesday I thought. They changed the way they played and it took us a little while to work them out.
“After our first goal, we got slightly comfortable. They had had a few chances before that. They definitely had more chances than they did on Tuesday and they made a game of it.
“We missed five or six good chances ourselves. Their keeper (Oli Mather) hurt himself early, and the difference between today and Tuesday was he wasn’t saving them today, we were missing them.”
Thornton co-coach Gary Wand thought his side was looking good until they were reduced to 10 men, and he was proud of the way they battled while a man down.
“We did okay, but the send-off totally changed the game,” Wand said.
“We were good in the first half and we had some really good chances, and it was pretty even before they scored their first goal off a cross, then they scored right on half-time and that really hurt us. I didn’t think it was a 2-0 game at that stage.
“We got it back to 2-1, but that was only for about three minutes before they went down and got a corner and our bloke handballed it on the line.
“We had a few chances after that but so did they. We opened the game right up. I’m happy with the way we played when we were down to 10 men. We stuck it to them and we just didn’t sit back, which a lot of people would expect us to do.
“I was happy with 3-1 in the end because we played half an hour with 10 players.”
Kahibah’s victory saw them jump South Cardiff into second place on the table. Moncrieff’s men are now on 22 points and trail league leaders Belmont Swansea (31) by nine. Kahibah are back in action this Sunday when they travel to The Gardens to challenge Wallsend.
Thornton is sixth on the table with 17 points alongside fifth-placed Toronto Awaba, who are both narrowly outside the top four as they trail fourth-placed West Wallsend (18) by a point. Thornton is away at Ulinga Oval this Saturday when they challenge South Cardiff.
Singleton Strikers FC v South Cardiff FC
The match was postponed due to wet weather.
Belmont Swansea United FC v West Wallsend SFC
The match was postponed due to wet weather.
Toronto Awaba FC v Cessnock City Hornets FC
The match was postponed due to wet weather.
Wallsend FC had the bye.
