Match of the Round
Lambton Jaffas FC 0-0 Newcastle Olympic
Lambton Jaffas coach David Tanchevski thought it was the story of his side’s season so far as they contested a 0-0 draw against Newcastle Olympic at Arthur Edden Oval in the match of the round on Saturday.
But the 2023 championship-winning coach said his men could still take plenty of positives away from the contest after keeping their third clean sheet in six matches.
The Jaffas have struggled to find the back of the net this season and were held scoreless for the fourth time despite creating almost 20 shots on goal. They hit the post, missed from close range and had a shot cleared off the line but the ball would just not go in for them in the round seven clash.
Archie Finn almost put the Jaffas in front against his former club in the sixth minute when he intercepted an under-hit backpass and got around Olympic’s goalkeeper Adam Pearce, but his shot from a tight angle was cleared off the line by the retreating Marcus Duncan.
Jimmy Oates was making his return from injury and was inches away from opening the scoring in the 40th minute, but his powerful strike from just outside the 18-yard box cannoned away off the post.
The deadlock remained unbroken at the break and neither side was able to find a winner in the second stanza as they were forced to settle for a point each.
For Tanchevski, it was certainly a performance his side can build on as they look to continue climbing the ladder in the coming weeks.
“Our stats guy had us at 18 shots to their four, so it was probably a bit disappointing not to come away with the win, but the good thing is we’re properly creating chances now,” Tanchevsk said.
“I think we were the better team on the day but just couldn’t take our chances.
“I think it was one of our best performances in two years, so there’s lots of positives. We need to take confidence from the performance and build for next week’s game.
“We’ve been working hard at training on moving the ball, keeping the ball and being composed on the ball, and I think we did that really well. Topor (Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Riley (McNaughton) controlled the tempo of the game for us at the back and Jimmy (Oates) and Bondy (Pat Bond) were excellent in the midfield.
“There was minimal turnover and we showed really good composure on the ball, and we created chances, which we haven’t done enough of in the first few weeks.
“On another day it could have been 4-0 at half-time. We just weren’t clinical. Hopefully once one goal goes in, it will open the barrier for us.”
Newcastle Olympic’s coach Paul DeVitis also took plenty of positives away from the match after challenging his side to improve defensively during the week and thought that a draw was a fair result.
“I think our first 20 minutes was really poor,” DeVitis said.
“A lot of turnover from us. We’re a team that prides ourselves on keeping possession and playing good football, but we just kept turning the ball over.
“At the same time, I thought Jaffas started really well and were more eager to get to the ball, and you have to give credit to them for that.
“After the 20 minutes, we settled into the game, and between the 30-minute mark and half-time we played really good and created a couple of good half chances. We got ourselves back in the game, for sure.
“We’d talked all week about the want of a clean sheet, which was a high priority for us to be a bit more solid defensively, and as it turned out we kept a clean sheet and we’re really happy about that.”
Olympic’s run of four consecutive away matches has now come to an end and they return home this Friday night when they host Adamstown Rosebud at Darling Street Oval.
Lambton’s next chance to go searching for goals is on Saturday evening when they welcome Belmont Swansea United to town.
Maitland FC 0-4 Edgeworth FC
Edgeworth Eagles coach Peter McGuinness thought Maitland FC were far more competitive than the scoreline suggested after his side prevailed 4-0 away from home against at Cooks Square Park on Sunday night.
The round seven clash at Cooks Square Park was either side’s to win at the half-time break after a cracking 27th-minute volley from Ryan Feutz was all that separated the teams and had Edgeworth ahead 1-0.
But the task at hand got far more difficult for the hosts in the 56th minute when Feutz got in behind and defender Jordan Jackson received a red card after bringing him down illegally.
It was a double blow for the Magpies as the visitors scored off that set piece, with Flynn Goodman tapping in from close range.
The Eagles made sure of the result in the 76th minute when Chris Fayers whipped in a ball from the left and it missed everyone before sneaking in off the back stick and an 85th-minute own goal completed the scoring after Finn Boulton got down the left edge and squared a ball into the box that the hosts could not handle.
For McGuinness, it was another pleasing result for his side who are still undefeated and are now on a four-game winning streak.
“It was a solid performance from us. I was happy with another clean sheet,” McGuinness said.
“We probably turned over a little bit too much possession when we won the ball. I think we gave it up a bit too easily.
“Outside of that though, I thought we were solid all over the park. It was a pretty tidy performance without being an overwhelming display.
“I think Maitland were still very competitive, that’s for sure. They build up from the back really well. We just had a bit more punch in the front third and took the chances we created.”
Maitland’s fourth loss in six outings leaves them stranded in 11th spot on the table and they will go in search of their second win on Wednesday night when they host 12th-placed New Lambton in a rescheduled round six contest.
Edgeworth will be looking to make it eight games unbeaten when they host Cooks Hill United at Jack McLaughlan Oval on Saturday afternoon.
Broadmeadow Magic FC 3-2 Adamstown Rosebud FC
Broadmeadow Magic held off a resurgent Adamstown Rosebud fightback to score their sixth win on the trot as they outscored the visitors 3-2 at Magic Park on Friday night.
The league leaders opened the scoring in the third minute when Will Ingram got in behind down the left edge and squared the ball into Ezra Palombini, who got on the scoresheet for the first time this season with a tap-in.
The hosts then doubled their lead in the ninth minute when they scored an almost identical goal, only this time it was Sam Kamper who got in behind down the right edge and James Cresnar who charged in to finish off the play with a tap-in from inside the six-yard box.
Magic continued to get in behind the Rosebud defence and they should have tripled their lead in the 15th minute, but a Cody Nancarrow strike from a few metres out sailed over the crossbar after visiting goalkeeper Thomas Jenkin had pulled off a diving save to deny a powerful Ingram strike.
Broadmeadow’s men took their 2-0 lead into the half-time break and it remained that way until the hour-mark when Adamstown failed to deal with a cross and Cresnar buried the loose ball from just inside the 18-yard box.
The home side were cruising at 3-0 up and the three points looked certain to be a formality until Adamstown’s Nicolas Gismero netted his second goal in as many weeks in the 77th minute when he beat the offside trap and slotted a one-on-one strike into the bottom-left corner.
His strike partner and skipper Dino Fajkovic then lit up Magic Park with a stunning strike, as the former Broadmeadow premiership-winner has done so many times before, as he picked out the top-right corner with a powerful strike from distance in the 81st minute.
The Rosebud pushed hard for an equaliser but Magic held on to secure the three points with a 3-2 victory.
Broadmeadow moved to 18 points after the win and remain at the top of the table. They will challenge the third-placed Weston Bears at Magic Park in another Friday night clash this week.
Adamstown are sixth and will also be in action this Friday night when they take on Newcastle Olympic at Darling Street Oval.
Valentine 1-5 Charlestown Azzurri FC
New Valentine FC coach Cas Wright declared the best is still to come for her side after suffering a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Charlestown Azzurri at Croudace Bay Complex on Saturday evening.
Wright took the reins at the Phoenix during the week following the departure of coach Kallum Garbett, who the club advised had stepped down from the head coaching position due to work commitments, and she was hopeful that her team could bounce back from a 7-1 defeat against Edgeworth six days earlier.
It was James Pascoe’s men who struck first as a thunderbolt Harrison Frendo volley from just outside the 18-yard box put the visitors in front.
Frendo then doubled up with an even better finish in the 29th minute as he sent a dipping strike from further out into the bottom-right corner to make the score 2-0.
Azzurri remained in front by two goals up until the 64th minute when Frendo turned provider after driving his way in behind the Valentine defence and delivering a perfect cross into the path of Regan Lundy, who found the back of the net with his first-time strike.
Lundy then completed his brace three minutes later when he stormed onto a Reece McManus cross from the right and buried a shot from close range at the front stick, before McManus volleyed home Charlestown’s fifth in the 86th minute.
Valentine had the final say with the last kick of the game as Toby Jensen blasted a powerful strike from the edge of the area that Ben McNamara had no chance of saving to make the final score 5-1.
Wright thought that Valentine was up against it given the circumstances, which showed in their performance.
“Coming off the Edgeworth game (7-1 loss) and our coach stepping down, it was already in the players’ minds that this was going to be an uphill battle,” Wright said.
“We obviously had Cale Graham out through suspension and Carter Smith, Campbell Ross and Cooper Verstegen all out too, and Kohane (Yamakami) is still waiting on a clearance.
“The boys had a clear understanding of where they were at, but unfortunately circumstances were already hard before we stepped on the pitch.
“We’ll work hard on tracking and one-v-one defending and shutting down passing lanes, but we’ve got to get our squad back on track first.”
Valentine are still 10th after the loss and will go in search of their second win of the season in round eight this Saturday when they travel to Alder Park to challenge New Lambton FC.
Fourth-placed Charlestown remain five points adrift of league leaders Broadmeadow following their big win, and they can cut that to two when they host Belmont Swansea United at Lisle Carr Oval in a rescheduled round six clash on Tuesday night.
Belmont Swansea United 0-3 Weston Bears
Weston Bears solidified themselves as an early finals’ contenders with a 3-0 victory against Belmont Swansea United at Blacksmiths Oval on Saturday afternoon.
The win was the Bears’ fourth on the trot and they are now four points clear of sixth-placed Adamstown with a game in hand as they hunt for a return to the post-season after missing out last year.
Talented youngster Dogen Gyoja opened the scoring in the 42nd minute of the round seven contest when the Japanese import charged onto a long ball and made his way into the box before burying his one-on-one strike past Kye Abrahams.
The score remained 1-0 at the half-time break and the Bears were able to double their lead less than a minute into the second stanza when Cooper Buswell got onto a cross at the edge of the area and fired home Weston’s second.
Buswell then completed his brace in the 67th minute when he got onto the end of a curling Burke Fahling cross and headed home Weston’s third and the score remained 3-0 when the full-time whistle sounded.
“The game went probably exactly how we thought it would,” Weston’s assistant coach Nathan Morris said.
“We would have loved to have played better, performance-wise, but everyone who has gone there so far this year has struggled.
“We knew it would be a struggle. The way they set up makes them very hard for teams to break down. Broadmeadow had only just gotten over the line with them a few weeks earlier, so we knew it would be a test, and it was.
“We knew that if we matched them in terms of fight, we could back our quality to come over the top of them in the end, which it did.”
BelSwans will go in search of their first win since round one on Tuesday night when they travel to Lisle Carr Oval for a rescheduled round six match against Charlestown Azzurri.
Next up for Weston is an away game at Magic Park against Broadmeadow to kick off round eight on Friday night.
New Lambton FC 2-4 Cooks Hill United
Cooks Hill United may have gotten the job done at Alder Park on Sunday afternoon but it was not quite the polished performance that coach Chris Zoricich was looking for as his men downed a 10-man New Lambton FC outfit 4-2.
The Golden Eagles took an early lead for the third time in their run of four straight home games when the visitors failed to clear a low driven Kent Harrison corner kick and Jackson McClymont netted from close range.
But for the second game in a row, a straight red card derailed the home side’s chances of earning their first point and this time their opponents scored from the ensuing free kick.
Hugh Browne received his marching orders after illegally taking down Joel Clissold just outside the 18-yard box before Josh Benson curled the free kick around the wall and into the top-right corner.
Benson then put Cooks Hill in front in the 30th minute with a tap in from point blank range before Clissold extended his side’s lead eight minutes later after a superb solo run that started in his own half.
New Lambton’s day went from bad to worse when skipper Josh Piddington was forced off with an ankle injury late in the half.
But they refused to give up and pulled a goal back when they won a penalty in the 43rd minute which Harrison converted to make the half-time score 3-2.
The Golden Eagles were hopeful of finding an equaliser in the second stanza and they did well to hang in at a goal down until the opening seconds of injury time when Cooks Hill substitute Alex Gillespie got onto the end of a Kai Bradley cross and headed home the match-sealing goal to make the final score 4-2.
Winning coach Chris Zoricich thought his side made things a lot harder on themselves than they needed to with the way they played, while New Lambton boss Shane Pryce conceded that his side must stop throwing away leads and making poor decisions that leave them a player short.
The two sides will be looking to improve this week, and for New Lambton that chance will come sooner rather than later when they travel to Cooks Square Park on Wednesday night for a rescheduled round six clash with Maitland.
Next up for Cooks Hill is an away game against the in-form Edgeworth FC at Jack McLaughlan Oval on Saturday afternoon in round eight.