Southern and Ettalong United pull further ahead

Round 15 of Central Coast Football's women's soccer league saw Southern and Ettalong United pull further ahead from the top four.

Meanwhile, Umina United suffered a defeat against Woongarrah.

Ettalong obliterated Kariong United in their fixture, trampling them to a 10-1 victory.

After taking over the lead in the Women's League with their Round 14 win over Toukley, Ettalong looked to extend their lead when they headed to Kariong to face wooden spooners Kariong United.

Determined to start the match on the front foot, the visitors found the net in the second minute after Tahlor Thackray buried a free-kick to give her side an early lead.

Within 15 minutes Southern had added another two, with both coming from the boot of Elaine Delaney, her fifth and sixth goals of the season.

Kariong responded to the early onslaught as Sophie Trengrove capitalised on a defensive error to open the scoring for the home side.

However, Ettalong quickly added to their tally, with Emma Woodger and Alana Currie finding the net within two minutes of each other to extend the lead to 5-1.

After opening the first-half scoring, Thackray scored the last goal of the first half to see the visitors into the break with a commanding 6-1 lead.

The visitors struggled to find the net in the early exchanges of the second half, wasting a number of good goal scoring opportunities.

However, Emma Woodger was able to find the net for a second time, before Thackray added another two just after the hour mark to put the result well and truly beyond doubt.

Thackray's four goals were enough to see her return to the top of the Golden Boot standings as she moved to 18 for the season.

Letisha Waddell then rounded off an emphatic performance with the 10th and final goal for the visitors in the74th minute as her side opened up a six-point gap between themselves and Gosford City in second position of the ladder.

The opportunity to move into second place on the Women's League table awaited Umina as they made the trip north to face Woongarrah at Hamlyn Terrace.

One loss in their last seven matches saw the visitors enter the match confident of securing a result.

A significantly depleted squad meant that a majority of the starting 11 in first grade had already seen game time in the preceding reserve grade fixture.

Umina managed to take the lead in the first half after striker Kate Styles scored her 13th of the season, a 1-0 lead that they carried through to the halftime break.

It became evident in the second half that Umina were struggling to keep up with the demands of two premier league level matches of football.

However, they continued to hold firm.

Midway through the second half, Lucy Pratt scored for Woongarrah to bring the sides level and set up an intriguing final 20 minutes to the match.

Sadly for Umina they eventually ran out of legs and Emma Hurley scored the winner for the home side in the dying minutes to wrap up Woongarrah's fourth victory of the season.

Umina coach Mr Steve Donaldson felt his side deserved something from the match, especially given the circumstances.

"To lead for a large part of the game and to lose the game in the final minutes, having played the same 16 players in reserve grade, is so unrewarding.

"We had just run out of legs by the 170th minute and it was evident due to the goal," he said.

The loss sees Umina slip into fourth position ahead of their big clash with third placed Kanwal in Round 16.

Ettalong will face fifth placed Terrigal United in their Round 16 clash.

SOURCE:

Media release, 31 Jul 2019

Lachlan Herd, Central Coast Football