With injuries and holidays continuing we were down to the bare eleven for this game, as it happens Tarrawanna were in the same situation.

Russell Vale started off pretty lively with some fast free flowing football and it only took 5mins to pierce Tarrawanna’s defence when Tommy Heaton set up Jordy Errington, 1-0. The visitors then had their best spell of the half as they tried hard to get back on level terms but a good save by Sean Donnelly kept them at bay. As Tarrawanna kept pushing forward Ethan Larnach broke quickly out of defence with the ball. A couple of one/twos as he continued his fine run before reaching the bye line and crossing for Blair Dunn to put the home side 2-0 up. Ethan Larnach was involved again in the next couple of attacks, firstly setting up Jordy Errington but his shot skimmed the bar. Then putting Riley Hanlon away, a good reverse ball to Christian Baade Mortimer who in turn set up Tommy Heaton to run on and score in off the bar, 3-0. At half time the Cobras were comfortably in control.

In the second half Russell Vale could easily have doubled the score but their profligacy in front of goal along with some dubious referee decisions resulted in only more goal…….and what a goal it was, from a free kick 25M out Blair Dunn stepped up and put a curling dipping shot into the top corner, 4-0. The half wasn’t without it’s drama as Jordy Errington hit the post, had two goals disallowed for offside and missed probably the sitter of the season. Tommy Heaton also hit the post and had another shot cleared off the line when it was clearly over.

It’s not just about goal scorers, in midfield Riley Hanlon, Christian & Bailey Baade Mortimer worked tirelessly to set up goal scoring opportunities for others. Defensively Tom Curren, Ethan Larnach, Baxter Bowler Prentice & Jack Donnelly were as solid as a rock for most of the game. However there was just one spell in the second half when we went to sleep and Sean Donnelly had to pull off several good saves in as many minutes to maintain a clean sheet.

Considering the lack of training in the past two weeks, overall it was a very pleasing and entertaining performance. The only disappointing thing for me on the day was the lack of enthusiasm and participation in the “three cheers” after the game. No one likes a sore loser but a bad winner is even worse, it shows a lack of respect for your opponents.

Our next game is home to Kiama on Friday evening, training times Mon/Wed as per normal.

YNWA

Coach