Mount Colah Football Club

Mt Colah FC Under 9 Falcons Match Report – Round 1

2nd April, Wahroonga @ Carrington – Away

Score: Drew 0-0

Player of the Match: Julia

Goalies: Corey, Jasper

And so to the first match of the season… the first test of the top-flight Falcons and the first proper game for the whole team due to the cancellation of our scheduled trial games. Today’s game was against Wahroonga A - a name that struck fear into many of our players from the Under 8 Vipers squad last year, who still hadn’t forgotten the 8-0 beating they suffered last season from them.

However, New year, New team, and last year’s Vipers Sam, Kieran, Corey and Jasper have now been joined by Julia, Jeremy, Luke and Tom to make a formidable force of Undeniable Undernineability. The team were full of confidence and ready to go, and after a few training drills to wake them up, and a visit to Coach Trev’s bootshop for the MFBT (Magic Football Boot Tape) to be applied, we were primed and ready for action.

The first half started off with Luke up front, Jeremy, Sam and Julia in midfield, and Kieran and Jasper in defence. Last year’s star goalie Corey was back in-between the posts for us keeping everything safe, and it quickly became apparent that we certainly needed him there, as Wahroonga pushed forward early with lots of shots on goal, keeping everyone pinned back and busy. Corey made some great saves early on, helped out by Jasper and Julia who kept the pressure on the Wahroonga forwards and done a good job tackling and clearing. Jeremy and Luke worked well together going up through the midfield and had a couple of opportunities, but our two main chances fell to Sam and Kieran, who both had shots on goal each that were saved by the Wahroonga keeper .

Half-time saw the score still locked at nil-all, and the team feeling ready for some vitamin C. After the mass orange-guzzling and pep talk had finished, we were back to business again. The lineup changed around in the 2nd half, with Jasper now taking a turn in goal and Tom and Corey taking turns up front as lone striker whilst Julia, Sam and Luke propped up the midfield. Whether it was the opposition getting tired, or the Falcons discovering some newfound confidence, the pace quickened up in the second half with us having much more possession than the first. Tom had a good shot on goal early on that was saved, and Julia made some magnificent runs down the right wing to pass the ball up forward, while moments later, Luke done the same on the other side of the field, putting in a lovely cross that Tom just failed to convert into a goal – our best chance of the game so far. Luke took a knock to his knee just after this and had to come off for a while (replaced by Corey), but soon came back on to help out as the action continued at both ends.

The last few minutes of the half were tense for both team’s supporters as both sides pressed to find a winning goal, but some marvelous defence and pressure by the Falcons ensured that Wahroonga weren’t going to have a win, as Corey, Kieran, and Sam all fell back and chased and defended ceaselessly to the final minutes, with Julia executing a beautiful textbook tackle on a rather surprised Wahroonga player in the final few minutes. After what seemed like an eternity, the final whistle blew, and the pressure was off for both teams. Both sets of supporters applauded the teams’ efforts, as it was obvious to everyone how exciting it had been to see such a hard-fought evenly matched game. Well done to all!

Player of the Match: Julia, by near unanimous decision, for her great efforts and tireless legs.

Special Mentions: Jeremy for his positioning and reading of the game, Tom for his goal attempts, Corey and Jasper for their excellent goalkeeping duties.