Round 9 - 22/7/7

Scorers: Chris -2, Nick, Fish, Wes, Pete

What a difference having subs makes. That and the fact that more than half the team were playing in their proper positions. But to the game. I would like to start off by saying that 9am on Sunday mornings should not exist at all, let alone to be outside and running around in. Nevertheless, we managed to pull out one of our best games of the season so far, and early pressure saw Nick get a goal to start us off. He then turned provider for Chris’ inch perfect header to double the lead. Displaying some brilliant passing football, Jesse and Heman continued to fashion chances and we kept the lion’s share, or should I say the Puma’s share [/bad joke] of possession throughout the game. Just before halftime, Fish (playing game 3 out of 4 for the weekend) stumbled the ball across the line from close range, and we felt confident at halftime.

The second half saw Redbacks come at us strongly, with Ranen making some fancy saves using some choice selections from his diving repertoire to keep the clean sheet, ably helped by a strong backline, including Howard making his debut at centreback. Pete and Roger at fulbacks distributed the ball well to keep Jason and Wes with plenty of action on the wings, with Wes cutting in field, beating 3 players before pulling out an unstoppable shot from longrange for his first goal of the season. Then it was Pete’s turn for his first goal as we dispatched a penalty Jason had won with his marauding run. At 5 up we slowed down a little and let them attack a bit more, to their credit Redbacks played the whole game at full commitment and in good spirit. But a quick breakaway through Erik and Scott from the AA/14s saw Scott put Chris through for his second of the game.

Big thanks to Scott, Fish and Erik for filling in for us. Now for next week, and hold on to our one point lead and hopefully win the Premiership next week.