Match report

Match report

The week leading up to Round 10, held Saturday 19th June, saw ongoing rain across the Adelaide Hills. Even the city copped an impressive amount.

Clubs have varying amounts of sensitivity to pitch protection. Woodside is a little more liberal with their somewhat durable venue, whilst Stirling United’s venue is mostly out of their hands. Heathfield High School as an outdoor sporting venue is not built for a lot of rain. Volleyball, Heathfield’s feature sport, is mostly played indoors of course so outdoor drainage probably isn’t a priority.

After a few days of rain it wasn’t a surprise when the Woodside Coach received a call from the Stirling United Coach to see if Woodside could host the game instead. With a pitch available at 9am the answer was obvious.

The weekend prior was the Queen’s birthday long weekend so it had been a fortnight since the pitch’s last game. As such the lines were a little faded. An early turn up for the line-marking crew fixed the issue, but discovered another – a late night / early morning burnout session by the local hoons. Thankfully the damage was light and didn’t stop the game from proceeding.

Referee James McArthur was running the show and got the game started on the dot of 9am.

From kick-off it was clear that the SUFC U17 team of the second half of this season isn’t going to be the same as the first. Whilst it was evident they were missing the likes of goal-keeper Calen McCormick and defender Kye McDonald, other pick-ups in Andoni Savva and Charlotte Miller strengthens them for the journey through to the end of the season.

It took 23 minutes for Woodside to open up the scoring. A corner from the master, Casey Godfrey, lead to a pinball machine like moment in front of goals, ultimately ending with Izeyah Raymond putting it away, his second goal for the season.

Two minutes later Lachlan Mowbray added a second goal for Woodside. This ramped up the pressure for Stirling United, who was keen to not let the opposition get the better of them.

No more goals saw Woodside 2-0 up at half time.

The second half played out very differently than the first. Stirling’s Billy Wilson managed to find the venue, which is surprising given this was his home ground last season. Meanwhile some of the rust had fallen off Andoni Savva.

AHJFA U16 Reps and Stirling United player Henry Monaghan managed to get one past Woodside’s keeper. It wasn’t scrappy. It never is from Monaghan. There are no stand out features looking at him. He’s neither big nor overly fast, but if he’s given an opportunity to boot it, he will. It’s usually perfect.

This of course lead to a chorus of cheers from Stirling’s supporters, something of a role reversal between the two teams over the last four years of play. Any goal is worth a cheer but some are more important than others.

Despite their best efforts another goal from Lachlan Mowbray on the 59th minute put Woodside two goals in front and all but sealed the deal on the game. Stirling United kept the pressure up, if only to provide a talking point for Woodside.

“They’ll be a concern for all teams for the rest of the season”, said Coach Bruce Tonkin of Stirling United. “With a full suite of players available we would have had a different result. We’ll need to assess our approach to that final game when we see them in five rounds.”

A stand out performance from Hayden Davis saw him receive Best & Fairest from the game. Notable plays from Angus Wilkins and Samuel Herman saw them pick up second and third respectively.

Stirling United will host Rangers in the next round whilst Woodside will travel to Pine Avenue to play top-team Hahndorf.