Match of the Round
Cooks Hill United FC 1-4 Belmont Swansea United FC
Belmont Swansea United coach Mick Stafford declared his team are now focused on the teams in front of them rather than those behind them following a dominant 4-1 victory over Cooks Hill United at Fearnley Dawes Athletics Field on Saturday evening.
BelSwans led 2-1 at the half-time break and they got the job done with two more goals in the second stanza.
BelSwans struck first in the seventh minute when Alex Clayton curled in a corner from the left and Joe Kable headed home the opener from close range.
The hosts equalised in the 33rd minute when their leading goal-scorer Josh Benson got free in the box and picked out the bottom-right corner.
But BelSwans hit back in the 45th minute when Drew Patterson beat the offside trap to storm onto a Reece Newton through ball and bury his one-on-one chance.
The visitors led 2-1 at the break and made it 3-1 in the 54th minute when Kable scored his second from a tight angle.
Kane Woolston finished the game off with a classy one-on-one finish after beating two defenders in the final minute of regulation time.
Stafford said he thought it was their most complete performance of the campaign so far.
“It was pleasing to put together a complete 90 minutes to control the game and come away with a pretty comprehensive victory,” Stafford said.
“It’s been a long time coming for us. We did everything we set out to do and we’ve been trying to do. It was good to see it come together in a pretty clutch match.
“I thought we controlled the game. You’d be naïve in football to think that having the ball and just going side to side across the backline is controlling the game. We controlled where they had the ball and they never had it in areas that could hurt us. When we got the ball, we put it in good areas and had bodies there to score four goals.
“At the end of the day, it’s not a possession game, it’s a game of scoring goals, and we scored four goals and they scored one.
“We’re looking above us now, not behind us, which is pretty exciting for the club. We’re six games undefeated and that’s building some real confidence. Belief comes from proof and we’re proving we can do it. No matter what’s thrown at us, we believe that we can get a result in the end, and we’re continuing to do that.”
Cooks Hill’s coach Chris Zoricich thought his men were well and truly in the contest until Patterson netted just before the break, which he thought took the wind out of his team’s sails.
“It’s obviously disappointing for us. It was a big game for both sides and we just never got to grips with how we needed to play the game,” Zoricich said.
“We needed to play differently to how we normally play because we didn’t have the legs in us after Wednesday (Hahn Australia Cup), and we couldn’t grasp how to do that.
“I thought the goals that we gave them were pretty cheap. They didn’t really have to earn the goals that they got, and that was disappointing.
“The way the game went played into their hands, really. Having said that though, when we equalised, I genuinely felt that if we had have gotten to half-time at 1-1, we had a really good chance of going on and getting a result.
“The goal just before half-time killed us, really. I’m not sure it was a 4-1 game, but fair play to them; they did what they do well and we knew what to expect. It was always going to be a tough game for us with their physicality and relentlessness.”
Next up for Cooks Hill is an away trip to Croudace Bay Complex to tackle Valentine on Saturday night, while BelSwans will be in action against Broadmeadow Magic at Magic Park on Friday night.
Adamstown Rosebud FC 0-1 Lambton Jaffas FC
Goals have been hard to come by this year for Lambton Jaffas, but coach David Tanchevski declared their rock-solid defence is proving enough to get the job done following a 1-0 win over Adamstown Rosebud at Adamstown Oval on Saturday afternoon.
The two sides were locked at 0-0 at half-time before Lambton went ahead in the 53rd minute.
Jimmy Oates marked his return from injury from style when he got onto the end of a Bailey Newton cross from the right and guided a header into the bottom-left corner to open the scoring.
That was the first and only goal of the contest as the Jaffas kept their fifth clean sheet of the campaign to secure the three points.
Tanchevski was pleased with his side’s efforts as they found a way to win against a side that had given them headaches throughout the 2025 season.
“They’ve narrowed their field up there, so it was tight field to play on and the surface wasn’t very good, so we knew it was going to be a fight and that’s exactly what it was,” Tanchevski said.
“Adamstown have been a tough one for us this year. We’d come from behind to beat the in the Cup and we lost to them in the league the first game.
“We created a few chances but didn’t take them, which seems to be a continuing problem of our season, but one was enough if the end. We know we’re good enough to keep teams scoreless.
“It was good to see Jimmy back out there. It was his first game back since we beat Adamstown in the Cup. He’s a handful up there in the front line. He’s physical and he can score headers like he did on the weekend.”
Lambton climbed to sixth after their win and are now one point outside the top five. They will host Charlestown Azzurri at Arthur Edden Oval on Saturday afternoon.
Adamstown remains 10th after the loss and are away at Jack McLaughlan Oval against Edgeworth Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
Edgeworth Eagles FC 3-0 New Lambton FC
Edgeworth Eagles are officially the team to beat as they ended round 15 on top of the table after taking down New Lambton FC 3-0 at Jack McLaughlan Oval on Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Jaylen Rodwell made an incisive run from the midfield after playing a pass upfield before getting the ball back in the box and picking out the bottom-left corner with a powerful shot.
It was a double blow for the visitors as they lost defender Vali Brandis three minutes later as he limped off injured.
The competition’s leading goal-scorer Ryan Feutz doubled Edgeworth’s lead in the 29th minute with a highlight reel finish and the hosts took the 2-0 lead into half-time.
Feutz then made it 3-0 with another classy finish in the 55th minute and that was the way the match ended as the Eagles kept their eighth clean sheet of the season.
Edgeworth were the only team to win at home across the weekend and the result saw them extend their undefeated league run in 2025 to 11 matches.
They are now a point ahead of Broadmeadow at the top of the table and will look to stay there when they host Adamstown Rosebud on Saturday afternoon.
New Lambton remains last on the table and are now six points behind Valentine FC. The Golden Eagles will travel to Rockwell Automation Park to challenge the Weston Bears on Saturday afternoon.
Maitland FC 1-2 Weston Bears FC
Weston Bears stole the show late to take all three points from Maitland FC after Saturday night’s clash at Cooks Square Park exploded to life with three goals in 10 chaotic minutes.
The two sides were locked at 0-0 at the half-time break and the score remained that way until the 83rd minute.
Weston’s Burke Fahling curled a free kick into the 18-yard box and his skipper Chris Hurley charged onto it and smashed home a volley from close range.
Jackson Burston had conceded the free kick that led to that goal, but that was quickly forgotten when he climbed highest to get onto the end of a Yuhei Sato free kick at the opposite end and headed in an equaliser five minutes later.
The two sides fought hard for the winner in the final five minutes and it was the Bears who delivered it after a minute of injury time.
Fahling was fouled a metre outside the penalty area and the dead ball specialist stepped up and curled a strike over the wall and into the back of the net past a diving Taylor Pate to seal the victory.
The win saw Weston remain in third place. They are seven points behind Edgeworth Eagles and six behind Broadmeadow Magic with a game in hand on each team.
They will host New Lambton FC at Rockwell Automation Park on Saturday afternoon.
Maitland dropped from sixth to eighth and will meet Newcastle Olympic at Darling Street Oval on Sunday evening.
Newcastle Olympic 2-2 Valentine FC
Newcastle Olympic’s run of 2-2 draws continued on Sunday afternoon when they finished all square with Valentine FC at Darling Street Oval.
Olympic had shared the points with Belmont Swansea United and New Lambton FC in the week prior to their round 15 clash and they gave up two leads against the Phoenix before blowing a late chance to win the match.
The hosts took a 1-0 advantage into the half-time break after Kale Bradbery netted a tidy finish into the bottom-right corner in the 32nd minute, but Valentine hit back seven minutes into the second stanza when Cooper Verstegen got onto a Dean Pettit free kick and picked out the bottom-left corner with a header.
Adam Zervas restored Olympic’s lead in the 65th minute with a thunderbolt volley after controlling a Jye Rodway cross before firing his side in front 2-1, but Valentine responded again when Scott Pettit won a penalty in the 74th minute and slotted home the rebound after Adam Pearce saved his spot kick.
Roy O’Donovan was brought down in the box at the other end in the 82nd minute and stepped up to take the shot, but the ball cannoned away off the right post before neither side was able to find a winner during the final 10 minutes of the contest as it remained 2-2.
Olympic remains fifth on the table but are now winless in their past five games and will be looking to turn that around when they host Maitland on Sunday evening.
While Valentine is still 11th and will be looking to climb out of the relegation zone when they host Cooks Hill United at Croudace Bay Complex on Saturday evening.
Charlestown Azzurri FC 1-1 Broadmeadow Magic FC
Broadmeadow Magic did enough to extend their undefeated streak to 10 matches but not enough to remain on top of the table after striking at the death to rescue a point against Charlestown Azzurri on Sunday night.
The two top four sides wrapped up round 15 at Lisle Carr Oval where the hosts struck first when Taylor Regan put Azzurri in the lead in the 25th minute.
Charlestown had Magic on the ropes at that stage and had forced two point-blank saves out of Lewis Alvarez as well as a goal line clearance in quick succession, before the pressure took its toll when Regan netted from close range after getting onto the end of a Tyran Cousins pass.
James Pascoe’s men took that lead into half-time and were still ahead 1-0 two minutes into injury time when Broadmeadow’s Tom Beecham won and converted a penalty to steal a point at the death.
The final whistle blew a few seconds after the kick-off as the match ended 1-1.
Broadmeadow are now second on the table after being overtaken by Edgeworth Eagles a day earlier. Their nine-game winning streak is now over but they are 10 games unbeaten going into a round 16 clash against Belmont Swansea United at Magic Park on Friday night.
Charlestown remains fourth and will travel to Arthur Edden Oval on Saturday afternoon to challenge Lambton Jaffas.
