SPROULE SPORTS FOCUS

 QUENTIN CONNERS

 

Edgeworth Eagles 1 (O. Smith 6’) def. by Charlestown City Blues 2 (S. Smith 12’, 36’)

Friday 15 March, 7:45 pm, Jack McLaughlan Oval

In one of the few matches that weren’t affected by the rain, defending premiers Edgeworth went down at home in what was their first loss to Charlestown in seven years.

Despite creating fewer opportunities than their opposition, the Blues made the most of theirs before displaying a resilient effort in defence.

The Eagles tasted first blood in the game through their new star forward Oliver Smith after he launched a shot from outside the box that beat Charlestown goalkeeper Nathan Archibold, clipping the inside of the post on the way through.

Charlestown bounced back quickly though, pouncing onto an Edgeworth defensive mix-up. A Lachlan Pasquale cross from the sideline looked to pose no real threat, but a miscommunication between Sam Maxwell and keeper Josh Low allowed Charlestown’s stand-in skipper Scott Smith, to poke in the goal.

Dom Bizarri came close to breaking the deadlock with a long shot that cannoned into the crossbar, as did Oliver Smith who skied a header from inside the 6-yard box.

Charlestown made them pay as Scott Smith latched onto a Kane Goodchild cross, sneaking his shot just inside the post and it was his goal that eventually gave his side the lead after a second half of shutting out the Edgeworth attack.

Charlestown coach David Tanchevski admitted he was proud of his team for the way they rallied together after a rather discouraging start to the season last week.

“After the first game, we were obviously disappointed of the result, but I wasn’t actually too disappointed with our performance,” Tanchevski said.

“We worked a bit more on our distribution because we made a few errors in that game and unfortunately for us, that’s how it led to Edgeworth’s first goal… But after that we composed ourselves and it could have got ugly, but the boys dug in and got one back and then a second one.

“We probably made twice as many chances in last week’s game and couldn’t convert them, and we only made a few chances on Friday night’s game and we took them.”

Having successfully defended a one-goal lead over the majority of the match, Tanchevski also made note of how happy he was with his side’s defensive performance.

“Our defence was very strong which is also pleasing,” he said.

“We talked about it at half-time; there’s 45 minutes to go and we certainly weren’t going to defend for the whole time, but we also weren’t going to take any risks either, so we decided to play the 4-4-2.

“Sometimes you can get caught when your defending and your deep and just constantly knocking the ball back out, but I don’t think the boys did that. I thought we played enough possession football in the second half that we defended well but also used more build up possession play to get out of our own half. We weren’t just camping and clearing it.

“I think you could see on Friday night that there is an ability and desire to win and how the boys work for each other is what we’re building this team on.”

 

Adamstown Rosebud 2 (Heydon 22’, Sokoulsky 29’) def. by Weston Bears 4 (Buswell 16’, Lundy 20’, 47’, Burston 87’)

Saturday 16 March, 5:30 pm, Adamstown Oval

After losing their first-round matches, both sides needed a victory to get their seasons on track, but in the end after a strong attacking performance, it was Weston who collected the three points.

The rain may have been cascading throughout the match, but that didn’t stop a multitude of goals from being knocked in for the amusement of fans.

Just like last weekend, the Bears got off to a strong start, however, this time scored the first two goals. The first came from Cooper Buswell who flicked in a header from a cross before Regan Lundy drove in a low shot from just inside the box.

The Rosebuds didn’t stay down though and rallied themselves back into the game following two combinations from Matt Sokoulsky and Connor Heydon. The first goal came from a short corner that saw Sokoulsky work a low ball into the box for a waiting Heydon, and only moments later, Heydon returned the favour knocking the ball into the box from a wide position that saw Sokoulsky smash it home to equalise.

With the scores level at the break, the Bears burst their way out of the gates in the second half as Lundy found himself on the end of a Buswell cross and for Adamstown, the hill to climb only got steeper when Judd Duncan received a red card, leaving them with 10 men for the rest of the game.

Jackson Burston put the game out of reach with a few minutes to go, sealing the 4-2 victory and his team’s first of the season.

Adamstown Rosebud coach Shane Cansdell-Sherriff was disappointed with the result, especially with the lapses in concentration his defence displayed.

“It was a frustrating game. Both two games have been because I think we deserved more out of them,” Cansdell-Sherrif said.

“We seemed to concede silly, easy goals to allow teams to get on top without working really hard for it…it puts us on the back foot and put more pressure on our attack.

“If we’re going to concede two or three or more each time, we’re going to have a long hard battle ahead of us.”

Although his side eventually lost for the second time this season, Cansdell-Sherriff was pleased that the Rosebuds were able to stay in the game despite trailing by two goals early on, but admitted that going forward, they need to be switched-on for the full 90 minutes.

“It was great character from the boys to get back into the game after being 2-nil down, and I imagine if we had another ten minutes before the half-time whistle went, we would have got a third goal,” the Adamstown coach said.

“We talked about starting with a high tempo in the second half and again, we went out and conceded a goal with just puts more pressure on the team.

“It’s frustrating because we’re working hard on these things at training and every aspect of the game, and we’re doing it well, it just seems that on game-day we’re switching off.”

 

All other matches were postponed.

 

Newcastle Jets Youth had the bye.