Neighbour versus neighbour in soccer round

It was neighbour versus neighbour in the highly-anticipated Round 13 fixture of Central Coast Football's Women's League Competition when Southern and Ettalong United defeated Umina United.

It was a soccer match a long time in the making with the fixture washed out the week before after heavy rain.

Undefeated in their last 10 matches, Southern and Ettalong looked to return to the summit of the table with a win over third placed Umina when the sides clashed at Umina Oval.

After falling to a 1-0 defeat in the earlier meeting between the two sides this season, Umina were looking to turn the tide on their local rivals.

However, they found themselves under significant early pressure from the visiting side who spurned a number of early opportunities.

Southern did make the breakthrough after 13 minutes, as Emma Woodger followed in a shot to profit from the rebound as she headed home the opening goal of the match.

After suffering through the early onslaught, Umina responded well as they began to gain a foothold in the match before the visitors' top-scorer Tahlor Thackray created a goal out of nothing, scoring with a long range strike in the 39th minute to take her tally to 13 for the season and see her side carry a 2-0 lead into the half-time break.

The second half continued at a high tempo, similarly to the first, with both sides enjoying quality periods of possession.

Knowing one goal would be enough to well and truly see them back into the contest, Umina continued to string together some decent opportunities but found themselves struggling to find the breakthrough.

Southern's Alana Currie scored her sides third goal after 70 minutes to all but wrap up the victory.

Umina's top-scorer, Kate Styles, was to find the net minutes later after a defensive mix-up saw her finish clinically to give her side a glimmer of hope.

However ,Southern were to finish the match off in the dying minutes after a corner from Thackray found Ali Mead who completed the scoring to see the match finish 4-1.

Umina coach Mr Steve Donaldson was happy with the effort from his side, given a number of players stepped up from the reserve grade squad.

"As disappointing as the result is to our challenge for the top, we've won games before where I've been more disappointed about the game itself.

"Asking five reserve grade players to start against the team equal top is a hard task."

The result sees Southern and Ettalong hot on the heels of ladder leaders Kanwal and Umina hold onto third place.

SOURCE:

Website, 16 Jul 2019

Lachlan Herd, Central Coast Football