MINOR SEMI-FINAL
CHARLESTOWN AZZURRI FC 2-3 NEWCASTLE OLYMPIC FC
Newcastle Olympic came from behind late on to defeat Charlestown Azzurri 3-2 in the minor semi-final on Sunday.
Charlestown took a 1-0 lead going into half-time after Summer Taube scored from the penalty spot in the 45th minute.
Jemma House equalised for Olympic in the 67th minute before Azzurri young gun Cassie Corder regained a one-goal advantage for Azzurri with nine minutes to play.
Brooke Summers kept Olympic in the game with a goal on the stroke of 90 minutes.
Keea Parrish then secured the win for Olympic in the 92nd minute when she scored from close range to spark wild celebrations and help Olympic advance to the preliminary final.
“It was a crazy finish but that’s what playing football is,” Olympic coach Paul Devitis said.
“We played a whole 90 minutes which obviously we had to and we got the win in the last five minutes with two nice goals.”
Devitis knew what his squad were up against having played Azzurri throughout the regular season and had a plan should the game come down to stoppage time.
“We’d talked about that scenario a fair bit and even at half-time I said if we’re not winning with five or 10 minutes to go, we’ll adjust on the fly and the girls listened and they did it well,” Devitis said.
Heading into the preliminary final against Broadmeadow Devitis said he understood the difficulty of the task but was confident his squad could get the job done.
“We’ll do a bit of strategic work ahead of Magic throughout the week and then I think emotionally we’ll get really pumped up,” Devitis said.
It is not all good news for Olympic though with Zoe Burnley and Alesha Clifford confirmed to be out with injuries following their round 21 clash.
“Zoe Burnley has done her ACL and Alesha Clifford has three ligament tears [in her ankle],” Devitis said.
“We won’t have either of the girls for the coming weeks.”
After remaining competitive all season, Charlestown Azzurri’s season has now come to an end following their defeat.
Despite dominating for much of the game Azzurri coach Niko Papaspiropoulos admitted it got away from them in the end.
“It’s disappointing that we let it get away from us,” Papaspiropoulos said.
“I thought we were the better side and I think we controlled the game and played the better football but it’s happened numerous times at all levels where the team that plays the better football doesn’t win if they don’t play for the full 90 minutes.
“Those key moments were always going to be the difference and to Olympic’s credit, they took their two moments [and] we let ourselves down.”
Although his team were unable to get the win, Papaspiropoulos remained proud of his squad’s efforts after a successful season.
“I was very proud of the girls’ efforts for the whole of that game,” Papaspiropoulos said.
“I thought we played really good football and the girls worked really hard but it was the one that got away from us unfortunately.”
While Azzurri’s season is over, Olympic will progress to the preliminary final next weekend where they will meet Broadmeadow Magic.
MAJOR SEMI-FINAL
WARNERS BAY FC 6-1 BROADMEADOW MAGIC FC
Warners Bay progressed to the inaugural NPL Women’s NNSW grand final after defeating Broadmeadow Magic 6-1 in a stunning display at John Street Oval on Sunday.
Lauren Allan opened the scoring for the Panthers with a goal in the 21st minute before Allan's deflected effort made it 2-0 heading into the break.
Magic pulled one back through Rhali Dobson with a penalty in the 64th minute to keep them in the game.
But the Panthers proved why they are the team to beat with goals in the 73rd, 75th and 89th minutes through Adriana Konjarski, Allan and Tara Andrews respectively before Andrews scored her second in added time.
“It was a very good win,” Warners Bay coach Craig Atkins said.
“We didn’t play our best football and it was quite a battle there for a period but it was still good enough to grab two goals before half-time and we spoke about our composure and getting back to what we do best.
“Magic scored a penalty to get back to 2-1 which made things a bit tighter but credit to the girls they lifted again and went on and got the job done.”
Although they won convincingly Atkins insisted his side had not reached their full potential and there were still things to work on.
“There are some things we didn’t do right [in that game] so there are things we’ve got to rectify,” Atkins said.
“We’ve got a week off now to sort that out and it will be a good opportunity to go back to the drawing board and fine tune a few things and be ready for whomever we’ve got in a couple of weeks.”
While Magic had their chances, losing left-back Jannali Hunter with concussion in the 24th minute was only the beginning of the depletion that the squad suffered.
Midfielder Maddie Dean also left the field with a foot injury and Broadmeadow finished the match with 10 players after Bella Carlise was sent from the field in the 88th minute following two yellow card offences.
“I thought for 60 minutes we were really good,” Broadmeadow coach Jake Curley said.
“Then we had [Maddie Dean] get injured which made us change our shape and Warners Bay were clinical in scoring four goals from crosses that we defended poorly.”
Broadmeadow now face Newcastle Olympic in the preliminary final next weekend, with the winner to meet Warners Bay in the grand final.