Match of the Round
Thornton Redbacks FC v Cessnock City Hornets FC
Metford Recreation Reserve, Saturday 2:30pm
This weekend’s match of the round will see the Thornton Redbacks challenge the slow-starting Cessnock City Hornets in another highly-anticipated Hunter Valley derby.
The fixture will be played at Metford after the home side was forced to relocate from their home ground at Thornton Park as it is still a few weeks away from being ready to play on due to council works.
Thornton was dealt a difficult start to the season when they drew away games against the defending premiers Toronto Awaba and the defending champions West Wallsend across the opening two rounds.
But the Redbacks weathered that storm and came out with four points after drawing 3-3 with the Stags and beating the Bluebells 1-0.
The driving forces behind the early success of the Redbacks have been a mixture of club spirit, hard work, determination and a player that can find the back of the net.
That player is 33-year-old Jack Whetney, who has been a breath of fresh air at the club in 2024 and has scored three goals in the side’s first two games.
Thornton co-coaches Gerard Carey and Gary Wand are certainly not getting carried away following the opening two rounds and have challenged their men to stay grounded and respect this weekend’s opposition.
“We want to see composure and we want to make sure the guys don’t underestimate the opposition,” Carey said.
“We have a lot of young blokes in the squad and Gary and I are hoping that they aren’t thinking ‘We’ve done really well, this should be easy next week’. We don’t want them thinking that. You’ve got to respect everybody in the comp.”
“It’s surprisingly positive so far, to be honest. I think I underestimated the work ethic of our team. They don’t stop,” Wand said.
“We’ve got someone up top who can score goals too, which certainly helps.
“I want to see more of the same this Saturday, but the challenge for our guys will be not dropping their intensity. We’ve played the top two teams in the competition, and I want to see us maintain the intensity we showed in those games.”
Cessnock’s start to the campaign has been well below what they are capable of and what they expect of themselves, but it’s far too early for panic yet.
The Hornets have impressed in patches despite suffering 10-3 and 4-0 losses in their first two games that have left them at the bottom of the table.
Coach Brad Miles is confident they can turn it around, especially if Tuesday night’s training session is anything to go off.
“It was quite intense and I was really happy with the effort. They really stepped up, driven by the experienced Josh Maguire, and the boys really responded to him,” Miles said.
“Hopefully now we’ll come out a bit sharper on Saturday.
“We are looking to find some consistency and for a 90-minute performance. Again, we started quite well on Saturday, but we copped a couple of poor goals from mistakes and the heads went down.
“It’s disappointing because I know that we are very capable. I’ve been happy with the way we’ve been playing despite the results. We’ve controlled the ball in the middle of the park and we’ve kept possession. It’s just those little things, those one per centers, that we’re not doing.”
Miles said that his side was ready for a tough battle on Saturday against a Redbacks outfit that has impressed him this season.
“I watched Thornton last week and they were quite good against West Wallsend. Their effort is good and they’re always competing in every challenge. We’re ready for a hard game,” Miles said.
In a significant blow for the Hornets, Lewis Howells is out for the season after he suffered an ACL injury last weekend. They also have Curtis Johnston in danger of missing the match with a hamstring injury and Lucas Egge will be away.
Thornton will be missing a few key players as well, with their talented left-sided duo Tom York and Coby Jenkinson expected to both be unavailable for the match-up at Metford.
South Cardiff FC v Kahibah FC
Ulinga Oval, Friday 8pm
Two sides hoping to get their season on track will meet at Ulinga Oval on Friday night when South Cardiff and Kahibah go head-to-head under lights.
These two teams have both sat out with byes across the opening two rounds and have both lost the one game they have played so far.
The Gunners went down 4-0 against Wallsend in the season opener and Kahibah were beaten 4-1 by Belmont Swansea in last weekend’s Match of the Round.
The two teams featured in last year’s finals series and they are both driven by the idea of promotion in 2024. Both coaches will be hoping to see an improved defensive effort on Friday night.
Gunners boss Perry Mellon was hoping to play a trial match last weekend rather than sit out entirely with a bye although those plans were abandoned as the potential hit-out was washed out.
Mellon is keen for his men to get back out onto the park tomorrow night.
“We definitely want to bounce back,” Mellon said.
“It was an okay performance in Round One although the result wasn’t good. I thought we dominated the majority of the game, and on another day we score enough goals to win two games.
“It’s one game out of 24 though so we won’t get caught up in the emotion of it. We have had a bit of time to get back on track and we’re hoping for a good performance on Friday night.
“Execution of skill is what I want to see really. We got done over by a few individual errors in our first game and that was probably the difference in the big moments.
“Kahibah will be pretty standard I’d say. Mat (Moncrieff) always has them fairly organised. They are experienced, pretty aggressive and pretty direct. We know what’s coming so we have to be prepared for that and make the most of it on the night.”
In a major boost for the Gunners, experienced centre-backs Jock Thompson and skipper Anthony Carter will return tomorrow night after they missed their side’s round one loss.
Kahibah will have Liam Whitehead available for the clash after his sending-off for two yellow cards on Sunday was deemed an error. Whitehead was only booked once, and therefore no suspension was recorded.
There is some added motivation for Kahibah in this one given that South Cardiff are the team that eliminated them from the 2023 finals series, and they will be charging out onto Ulinga Oval tomorrow night looking for revenge.
Belmont Swansea United FC v Singleton Strikers FC
Blacksmiths Oval, Saturday 4:30pm
The Singleton Strikers are a side searching for improvement and there is no greater challenge than the high-flying Belmont Swansea United at Blacksmiths Oval.
BelSwans will go into Saturday afternoon’s clash at their home ground full of confidence after winning their first two games a combined 14 goals to four.
In their first and only home game so far this year, they piled on 10 goals against Cessnock including eight in the second half and will be hoping to put on another show in front of their home fans on Saturday afternoon.
Singleton’s coach Doug West thought his men needed to be better than what they produced in the first half of their 4-0 win against Cessnock last Saturday.
The Strikers then lost their first away game of the season 0-2 against West Wallsend in a rescheduled Round One clash against West Wallsend last night.
This Saturday’s match is a chance for Singleton to return to winning ways and gain some more confidence with a win against the early competition heavyweights.
Wallsend FC v West Wallsend SFC
The Gardens, Sunday 2:30pm
A local rivalry steeped in tradition returns for the first time in 2024 when Wallsend hosts West Wallsend at The Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
These two teams have had a similar start to the season with a win and a loss each both looking at this derby contest as a chance to earn win number two and build some momentum going forward.
The Bluebells lost their first game of the season last Friday night when they went down 1-0 against Thornton but they bounced back last night when they downed Singleton 2-0.
Westy’s first two games were played on home soil at Johnston Park, but the defending champions’ third fixture in 10 days will be contested on the road. That will not phase Bailey Cox’s men in the slightest given that they ended the 2023 campaign on an eight-game away winning streak that dated back to May.
Like Cox, Wallsend’s coach Chris Gallagher has played and coached in this derby and is well aware of what it means to not just his club but to football in this region.
“It’s a pretty big game. They always are these derby days,” Gallagher said.
“I remember playing in them and I’ve coached in a few. It’s good fun and players get up for them.
“Both clubs are pretty much foundation clubs in Newcastle football and they both have massive amounts of history. It’s one of the oldest derbies in the world.”
Wallsend started their campaign with a 4-0 win away from home against South Cardiff in the season opener before going down in their first home game of the year last weekend at The Gardens.
Gallagher declared that his side’s approach following a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Toronto Awaba would not change going into the derby.
“We stick to the same processes, stick to what we’ve been doing. Not a lot will really change but we’ll look at where we went wrong and how we conceded and try and fix those things up. We’ll keep moving forward,” Gallagher said.
Wallsend is at full strength for this Sunday’s derby while West Wallsend will be without Jake Millsteed after he limped off with a hamstring injury last Friday and missed last night’s win. He joins a growing Bluebells casualty ward that includes Matt Paul and Josh Carroll, who both have long-term injuries.
Toronto Awaba FC has the bye.