NBN State League Round 15 Review

This report is reproduced courtesy of NNSWF

Lake Macquarie City FC 2 – 1 Hamilton Olympic FC

Lake Macquarie survived an early onslaught to defeat Hamilton Olympic 2-1 at Macquarie Field on Sunday.

Olympic came out firing and dominated the early proceedings, only for Lake Macquarie to take advantage against the run of play early in the second half and went on to build a comfortable two goal lead.

Just five minutes in Ben Koina tapped in at the back post after Brad Swancott was forced to save David Hodgson’s effort resulting from some fluent build up play from Harry James and John Majurovski, but he was ruled off side.

From then Hamilton continued to create chances but some near misses, great goalkeeping and desperate defending kept in goalless early on.

Harry James returned from suspension and was influential in an advanced role linking up with Majurovski and Hodgson upfront, they caused the Macquarie defence some headaches and James came close on several occasions with his efforts just glancing wide.

Lake Macquarie’s best chance of the half came on 40 minutes when Andre Gumprecht showed his class hitting the crossbar from over 30 yards out attempting to chip Wade Perram from distance.

It was good to see a half of attacking football and particularly the style of play and movement of Olympic in the attacking third, but no goals to show for their efforts.

They were made to pay just one minute into the restart when Brady Parker found himself in opposition area for one of the few times in the match and finished into the bottom corner from a tight angle to give his side the lead.

Lake Macquarie lifted from that point on and seemed to control the game for the next twenty minutes as the game opened up a bit, they extended their lead on 71 minutes through Justin Tannock to give take an unlikely 2-0 lead after how the game started.

Olympic got one back late in the game after some excellent build up work from James again to find Majurovski at the back post the head home, but they left it too late to try and get anything out of the game and went down 2-1.

Hamilton Olympic Coach Michael Bolch said “I can’t complain about the effort, or our style of play, we’re just not getting the reward.”

Lake Macquarie City Coach Chris Turner knows his side survived a “dominant” early period from Olympic but was pleased with the way his side responded in the second half after adjustments were made.

It will certainly be an interesting re match when these sides meet again at Darling Street Oval next Sunday.


West Wallsend 0 – 1 South Cardiff

Just the one goal separated South Cardiff and West Wallsend at Varley Park as the Gunners ran out 1-0 winners.

Chris Gazzard marked his arrival at the club with the match winning goal, a great strike from distance and it proved to be the difference on the day.

West Wallsend welcomed the return of Jacob Bailey who has been out injured since Round Two and was a second half substitute in this one; almost making an immediate impact on his return but was prevented by South Cardiff goalkeeper Jordan Griffiths after his one on one opportunity.

The result now puts South Cardiff in the top four, although having played an extra match than Olympic who slip down to fifth.

Although the result still leaves West Wallsend bottom of the table it now extends that margin to 9 points as seventh placed Edgeworth Eagles secured a vital 3 points against Weston Workers.

West Wallsend Coach Darren Sills said “they guys played well and I can’t fault their commitment, we can’t score and that was the difference between the two sides.”

West Wallsend were again left to rue a number of missed chances in front of goal to walk away empty handed after playing some nice football.


Weston Workers 1 – 3 Edgeworth

Edgeworth secured another impressive win defeating Weston Workers 3-1 at Thomas & Coffey Park.

Edgeworth secured a three goal lead in the second half to wrap up the game before Weston got a conciliation goal late in the game to bring one back.

The game started off at a high pace with Edgeworth creating two chances early, Tim Pratt did well to save the initial attempt but the Eagles later took the lead on fifteen minutes through Jacob Pepper.

They extended that lead to 2-0 on 40 minutes when Troy Halpin executed his free kick to find the top corner and give his side a two goal cushion.

Weston Workers almost replied just minutes later through their own dead ball specialist Nathan Morris, Ben Smith was forced to make an excellent save to maintain his side’s advantage going into the half time break.

The Bears came out strong in the second half and had a lot of possession but found it difficult to break down the Edgeworth defence, who were rewarded a penalty midway through the second half for Joel Wood to extend their lead to three goals.

Robbie Turnbull pulled one back for Weston late in the game but it made little impact on the end result.

Weston Coach Darren Elkin said “we played a lot better on the ball and it terms of ourpossession, but they took their opportunities.”

Both sides will meet again next week at Jack McLaughlin Oval.


Broadmeadow Magic 2 – 1 Valentine Phoenix

Broadmeadow Magic scored a last minute winner to claim all three points against Valentine Phoenix at Wanderers Oval.

Peter Haynes got a double for Magic as he scored crucial goals in the final minute of each half to give his side an ecstatic home victory.

Valentine Phoenix opened the scoring 25 minutes into the game through Chris Brown as they looked to stun the league leaders early on.

Phoenix got numbers behind the ball similar to their performance against Edgeworth last week where they kept them to a clean sheet and did well to limit Broadmeadow’s opportunities in front of goal, not being able create any real clear cut chances.

It looked as though Valentine would take that advantage into the half time break until Haynes hit a well timed free kick in the 45th minute that took a deflection off the wall and found the back of the net.
Haynes was on hand again in the final seconds of the game to clinch the victory for his side and extend their lead to seven points at the top of the table.

Broadmeadow Magic Coach Damien Smith said “it was a tight affair, they defended well and we found it tough to break them down.”

Little separated the sides on the day in a tough encounter, with Valentine Phoenix putting in another solid performance and will have to do it all again as these sides meet again at Cahill Oval next Saturday.