Match of the Round
ADAMSTOWN ROSEBUD JFC 1-6 WARNERS BAY FC
Warners Bay officially secured the inaugural NPL Women’s NNSW premiership with a 6-1 win over Adamstown Rosebud on Sunday.
Tara Andrews scored a hat-trick for the new premiers, with Elodie Dagg, Cassidy Davis and Adriana Konjarski also on the scoresheet at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility.
The win saw Warners Bay finish the regular season on 55 points, three points clear of second-placed Broadmeadow.
Following a week off between rounds 20 and 21, Warners Bay were slow to start but dominated possession following their first goal.
“The girls were fresh after a week off and it was really important that we started quickly,” Warners Bay coach Craig Atkins said.
“We scored a goal within the first 10 minutes which was a nice start. We were probably a little slow to start but once we hit our straps I thought we dominated the game a fair bit and overall it was a solid performance.”
The Panthers were officially crowned premiers following Sunday afternoon’s result, after the Panthers’ outstanding run of wins throughout the season.
“It’s very exciting [to secure the premiership],” Atkins said.
“The girls put in a lot of hard work and it’s very well deserved. Once we hit our straps and we got the ball rolling we got ourselves on a good run.”
Turning their attention towards their finals campaign, Atkins was under no illusion as to how hard his squad were going to have to work.
“Semi-finals is a completely different ball game,” Atkins said.
“We’ve got Magic next week in the major semi and we want to be looking to put on a performance like we did against them last time. We know they’re going to be a very, very tough opposition so we’re going to need to be on our game to get a result.”
Adamstown finish their season in sixth place on 24 points having won seven of their 21 games.
Warners Bay will face Broadmeadow Magic in the major semi-final next weekend.
NEWCASTLE OLYMPIC FC 1-3 BROADMEADOW MAGIC
Broadmeadow finished the regular season in second place following their 3-1 defeat of Newcastle Olympic at Darling Street Oval on Sunday.
The win took Magic to 52 points, three points shy of Warners Bay, however the Panthers’ significantly better goal difference would have prevented Broadmeadow from taking the premiership had they finished level on points.
The win against fellow semi-finalists Olympic will put Broadmeadow in good standing heading into next weekend where they will face Warners Bay in the major semi-final.
The week off between rounds 20 and 21 seemed to do Magic good with a dominant performance culminating in their solid defence which saw Olympic unable to capitalise on opportunities.
“I thought we were solid throughout the game,” Magic coach Jake Curley said.
“We were good defensively and we were able to create good opportunities.”
Olympic finished the regular season in fourth place, earning them a finals spot which will see them face Charlestown Azzurri next weekend.
With 11 wins from their 21 games, Newcastle finished on 34 points, having scored an impressive 83 goals.
NEW LAMBTON FC 0-12 MAITLAND FC
Maitland finished their season on a high thrashing New Lambton 12-0 on Sunday.
Despite a disappointing finish to their season and narrowly missing the finals, the Magpies managed to finish their season with an impressive display at Alder Park.
Mercedes McNabb, Chelsea Greguric, Sophie Jones, Sophie Stapleford and Ainsley Childs all got their names on the scoresheet and contributed to Maitland’s impressive 12-goal tally.
“It was nice to finish on a high,” Maitland coach David Walker said.
“We’ve had some ups and downs and we’re disappointed to not be playing finals but it was still a good result and a nice afternoon.”
Having narrowly missed finals by three points, finishing in fifth place on 31 points, Walker was still satisfied with his side’s perseverance and solid results gained over the last six weeks.
“Over the last six weeks, the only game that was sort of disappointing from a performance point of view was against Adamstown, so if we could have that game over again, we may have been in a slightly different position,” Walker said.
“It’s a long season and we’ve had some ups and downs and some challenges with injuries.
“We got closer than last year but still fell a little short so we can’t help but be a little bit disappointed. But we kept a clean sheet today and had plenty of opportunities, so it was still a good day.”
Having conceded a goal to New Lambton the last time the two sides met, Maitland’s main objective was to keep a clean sheet.
“We had a good range of goal scorers and it was important today to not concede any goals and that was one area we wanted to improve on from last time we played New Lambton and we were able to do that to the defenders’ and the goalkeeper’s credit,” Walker said.
With their season having come to an end, Walker had nothing but praise for his young side.
“We played some terrific games and had a terrific start to the season so there was certainly more good than bad,” Walker said.
New Lambton finish the season on a disappointing note, having not won a single game and scoring just eight goals for the year.
Despite this, coach Mackenzie Davis was proud of her squad’s efforts and celebrating Emily Ridgeway’s 50th senior game.
“It was a tough game for us but it was really fantastic to make it through the season as a squad that’s really improved,” Davis said.
“We celebrated Emily Ridgeway’s 50th senior game for NLFC and that definitely gave the squad a lot of fight.”
CHARLESTOWN AZZURRI FC 4-1 MID COAST FC
Charlestown Azzurri finished their regular season with a 4-1 win over Mid Coast on Sunday.
Azzurri finish the regular season in third place on 41 points, securing their place in the finals.
Despite the win, coach Niko Papaspiropoulos was not satisfied with his side’s performance at Lisle Carr Oval.
“It wasn’t our cleanest performance, especially our first half,” Papaspiropoulos said.
“In both halves we had some lapses of concentration where we were a little bit too relaxed and casual but in our second half, we controlled the game a lot better and created lots of opportunities.
“We probably needed to be a bit more clinical but overall we still got a comfortable win in the end and we finished the regular season on a winning note.”
Heading into the finals, Papaspiropoulos said a win was important for his squad’s mentality and momentum heading into next weekend.
“We obviously wanted to get as many wins as we could and getting these wins will be good for our mentality,” Papaspiropoulos said.
Charlestown will face Newcastle Olympic in the minor semi-final next weekend. Azzurri defeated Olympic 4-1 in their rescheduled round 15 match on Thursday night.
Papaspiropoulos knows there are still things his squad needs to fine tune if they want to remain competitive heading into the next couple of weeks.
“I think at this point it’s about fine-tuning things,” he said.
“Finals games are always very different to regular season games and your previous results don’t really matter. We need to have a look back through the year and address any problems we’ve had.”
Mid Coast finish their season on 10 points, with three wins from their 21 games.