Match of the Round
Kahibah FC 1-4 Toronto Awaba FC
Round four kicked off at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on Friday night where Toronto Awaba scored a 4-1 victory against Kahibah.
The two sides were locked at 1-1 at the half-time break after Kahibah debutant Daniel Keelan scored his first goal for his new club in the 28th minute to cancel out Jarrod Purcell’s opener for the Stags seven minutes into the contest.
The defending premiers hit the lead for the second time just two minutes into the second stanza when Bailey Snowden sent a corner into the mix and Kahibah’s goalkeeper Jacob Zissis punched the ball into his own net.
Purcell then doubled his tally and his side’s lead three minutes later when he made the score 3-1 on the 50-minute mark and the Stags striker completed his hat-trick with a tidy finish in the 64th minute.
A scuffle in the 70th minute saw a flurry of cards handed out, with the two teams reduced to 10 men after Kahibah’s Jensen Hunt and Toronto’s Connor Fitzpatrick were both shown red.
Neither side was able to find the back of the net in the final 20 minutes of the contest as Toronto Awaba secured the three points with a 4-1 victory.
Stags coach Jarrad Hiles missed the game while away on holidays and his assistant Topher Cook was tasked with looking after the team during the week and on game day. He said that the tussle between the two sides was exactly what his men expected, and praised his team’s senior players for standing up in the key moments.
“It was a typical game between us,” Cook said.
“When we verse Kahibah, there’s always various spot fires throughout, there’s always a lot of energy and there’s always a lot of tackles that are dubious.
“I think that the way the boys handled it was positive. Kahibah really tried to shut down the way we try to play, and our senior guys really stepped up to guide the boys around.
“After about two minutes in the second half we’d had two good chances and then we scored from a corner. For the next 10 to 15 minutes, I felt our boys were a bit comfier and there were less chances on our goal and we created a few. We probably didn’t take as many as we should have.
“But then in the last 10 to 15 minutes, Kahibah got back into the game and Drew Olsen came up with some really good decisive saves.”
Kahibah’s coach Mat Moncrieff thought his men had put themselves in a position to win the match but just could not get the job done.
“At half-time we were pretty happy. I thought in the first half we were really good and we finished the half the better team,” Moncrieff said.
“It was another game that was there to win and we failed again. We need to get better at that. I’m not fully disappointed because it’s been there for us, we’ve just got to start finishing games off.
“To be honest though, Toronto are probably the best team in the comp. They’re the ones we’ll all need to get past, I think. They are just status quo across the whole park. There are not many changes in what they do and they do it very well.”
The loss was Kahibah’s second by a margin of four goals to one at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility this season. To go with a bye and another loss, they are the only side without a point so far in the 2024 campaign and they are sitting in last spot on the nine-team table.
Kahibah will go in search of their first points this week when they challenge West Wallsend at Johnston Park on Wednesday night in round five and then Cessnock City Hornets at Turner Park on Saturday afternoon in round six.
Toronto Awaba is one of three undefeated teams after four rounds and sit third on the table with seven points following two wins, a draw and a bye. They will play two matches during the next week when they meet South Cardiff on Wednesday night in round five and then Belmont Swansea on Sunday night in round six.
Singleton Strikers FC 0-0 Thornton Redbacks FC
Singleton Strikers and Thornton Redbacks failed to fire and were forced to share the points in a scoreless draw at Metford Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
The two sides entered the half-time break with nothing splitting them.
The game looked ready to come to life when Singleton were reduced to 10 men in the 48th minute after centre back Ben Henry brought down Mamadou Diop when he appeared to be away about 10 metres inside his attacking half.
But neither side was able to break the deadlock and they were forced to settle for a point each.
Despite Singleton having dropped points in a third consecutive game, the Strikers’ coach Doug West was pleased with both the way in which his men approached the contest and the momentum they are starting to build as they continue to work their way into the season.
“It was probably only one team that was chasing the result,” West said.
“Thornton definitely set up quite defensively with deep set blocks. They had numbers at the back and it was hard to break down.
“We got to half-time at nil-all and we had Ben Henry sent off about four minutes after half-time. In a weird way, it kind of opened the game up a bit more but Thornton didn’t change their shape or commit numbers forward.
“We pressed for the win and pushed numbers forward. We created a lot of chances and I think possibly on another day with a bit of luck, one of those chances might have resulted in a goal.
“It was a little bit frustrating on the attacking front, but it was great to not concede a goal. We were pretty comfortable at the back and our defence was solid.”
Thornton remains undefeated after the first month of the 2024 campaign and their coach Gerard Carey credited that to the playing group executing the plan that he and Gary Wand have put in place for them.
“The basis of our game so far this year is working on our defence and getting our discipline right,” Carey said.
“I think being undefeated allows the players to go, ‘this is working’.
“If we hadn’t got some good results we’d need to come up with something different.
“Gary and I are working on a system and we’ve had a few video sessions to reinforce it. We’re really happy with it so far, and over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be looking at improving the front third action.”
Thornton is second on the table on eight points following two draws on either side of two victories. Their next fixture is their biggest test yet as they get set to take on league leaders Belmont Swansea in a top-of-the-table round five clash on Wednesday night at Blacksmiths Oval. The Redbacks will then meet Wallsend at The Gardens on Sunday in round six.
Singleton will also be in action on Wednesday night when they travel to The Gardens to tackle Wallsend before they sit out with the round six bye on the weekend.
Cessnock City Hornets FC 2-0 Wallsend FC
Cessnock City Hornets climbed off the bottom of the table with their first win of the season on Saturday as they scored a 2-0 home ground victory at Turner Park against Wallsend.
The hosts were dealt a major blow prior to the game when key player Josh Maguire was ruled out with an injury in the warmup before it went from bad to worse when Tom Cunningham and Blake Roy were forced off at half-time with injuries.
The score was locked at 0-0 at the break as a nervous final 45 minutes awaited the home fans when play restarted.
Cessnock had produced a trio of quality first-half efforts in their opening three games of the campaign but had thrown the matches away in the second stanzas on each occasion.
This time they got the job done as they found the back of the net twice while managing to keep a clean sheet.
Flynn Reeks opened the scoring in the 49th minute when he charged into the clear onto a Drew Dodgson through ball and tucked away a sharp finish into the bottom corner to cap off his starting debut in first grade in memorable fashion.
Zac Brown then doubled Cessnock’s lead in the 66th minute with a tidy strike of his own to make the score 2-0.
That was the way it remained as the Hornets secured their first clean sheet and their first three points of the campaign.
Cessnock’s coach Brad Miles was thrilled with his side’s efforts on a day that they lost four players to injury, including Lucas Egge in the 70th minute.
“There was a really good feeling in the sheds after the game,” Miles said.
“We played for 90 minutes like we’ve been asking for. The boys worked hard and got the job done.
“The second 45 this week was really good, considering we lost Josh Maguire in the warm-up and then our captain Blake Roy and left-back Tom Cunningham at half-time with injury. The guys stuck to the game plan and they were just really good. I’m really proud of them.
“We’d spoken about how the last few weeks we haven’t been very good at our game management. We worked really hard on that and our game plan came through really strongly.
“I was really happy with our back four especially. They were unreal.”
Cessnock has leapfrogged Kahibah into eighth place and will now get a chance to rest and recover as they sit out of the Wednesday night fixtures with the round five bye before they go head-to-head with Kahibah on Saturday in round six.
Wallsend will host two matches at The Gardens this week as they attempt to return to winning ways. They will welcome Singleton to town in round five on Wednesday night and then Thornton on Sunday afternoon.
South Cardiff FC 0-6 Belmont Swansea United FC
Belmont Swansea United continues to instil fear into the rest of the competition as they scored a dominant 6-0 victory away from home against South Cardiff at Ulinga Oval on Saturday night.
BelSwans took the lead in the seventh minute when Adam Woodbine capitalised on a failed clearance by the Gunners and blasted the ball into the back of the net from close range.
Cameron Lodge then doubled the visitors’ advantage in the 13th minute when he curled in a cross from the left edge that beat everyone and crept inside the back stick to make the score 2-0.
The score became 3-0 in the 33rd minute when another cross found its way into the back of the net. This time it was a Matt Hall corner kick from the left that the midfielder curled in with his right foot, which again beat everyone on its way in.
Woodbine scored his second of the game in the 40th minute to make the score 4-0. He created the attack when he brought down a pass and released Ethan Hall down the left edge with a crafty backheel pass and Hall got to the byline and cut the ball back to Woodbine for a tap-in.
BelSwans took the four-goal lead into the half-time break and the competition’s leading goal-scorer Kane Woolston made it five in the 69th minute when he put away his seventh goal of the campaign.
Matt Hall then added the visitors’ sixth in the 80th minute before he and Woolston were brought off for a well-earned rest a minute later and got to watch their side secure their second clean sheet of the campaign from the sideline as BelSwans won the contest 6-0.
Despite conceding six, South Cardiff’s goalkeeper Izaac Terry was named his side’s player of the match, as without several of his brilliant saves, BelSwans would have racked up double digits for the second time this season.
The Belmont Swansea United coach Mick Stafford was proud of the way his side executed on the night against a side that he was quite wary of during the week.
“I think we were pretty dominant in the first half. We showed a lot of intensity and the work rate was high,” Stafford said.
“The boys rose to the challenge of trying to beat last year’s runners-up at home. They showed up and competed quite well.
“I was pretty happy with the second half too but we did come out a bit flat after such a strong first half. But we stuck to the structure and the discipline was there and after we withheld their barrage. We rolled on with it and got a couple of good goals and could have gotten a couple more.”
BelSwans is at the top of the table after four rounds and are the only side to have secured a maximum 12 competition points. They are one of three undefeated teams and will take on the other two this week when they host second-placed Thornton Redbacks in a top-of-the-table round five clash on Wednesday night and then third-placed Toronto Awaba away from home in round six on Sunday night.
The Gunners will be looking to bounce back from their big loss on Wednesday night when they travel to Lyall Peacock Oval to challenge Toronto Awaba in round five before they host West Wallsend at Ulinga Oval on Saturday night in round six.
West Wallsend SFC had the bye.