Match report

Season Date Round Venue
2019 U14 Div 1 15th June 9:00am League Round 8 WWSC Main Pitch 1
Goals
A. Phelan (50'), A. Phelan (70')

Best
J. Doyle (1st), K. Henry (2nd), A. Phelan (3rd)
Goals
N/A

Best
N/A
Match report

After some heavy rain mid week, the U14 Div 1 game between Stirling United and Mount Barker Red was moved to Woodside. Despite the rain, and some light early morning fog, conditions were excellent for what proved to be a very tight contest. The first half was dominated by the respective defences, with most of the play between the two penalty boxes and few clear chances for either side. Stirling held a slight edge in terms of posession, but Mount Barker were at times able to use their pace to counter attack. A corner at the end of the half fell at the feet Joseph Doyle, but his shot was wide of the mark, leaving the score at 0-0 at the break.

Stirling came out strongly at the start of the second half, with a shot well outside the box from Tom Harris just going over the cross bar. Shortly after, Henry Monaghan pressured the defence after a goal kick, got around the diving goal keeper and rolled the ball towards goal, only to see a desparate Mount Barker defender clear from right on the goal line. A subsequent corner came out to Doyle on the edge of the box, whose shot was blocked over by the keeper. With Stirling continuing to press but not making any impression on the scoreboard, Monaghan went for an ambitious bicycle kick that looked spectacular but went well wide.

After 50 mins, the deadlock was finally broken when Toby Leigh passed the ball superbly to allow Araby Phelan to run on to the ball on his favoured left and he slotted it home in the bottom right corner. This however did not deter Mount Barker, who mounted a strong counter attack which saw a powerful shot strike the crossbar but deflect over the top. With the play opening up, Phelan had another shot blocked by an excellent save from the Mount Barker keeper, and then with less than 5 minutes to play, a shot from well outside the area cleared Lachlan Stein in the Stirling goal to level the scores.

A frenetic final few minutes ensued, with both teams having opportunities to take the win, before Phelan took the ball on his right hand side and slammed the ball home with his non-preferred right foot to give Stirling the narrowest of victories.

On this performance, both teams can be expected to be fighting it out for the trophies come the end of the season.