YOUTH GRADE – Lost 0-1: The youthies could (should?) have been down to 10 men in the first half when Andrew James brought down a Warilla player in the box. The penalty was awarded but luckily no card. In form goalkeeper Damien Clark produced a sharp save to keep it at o-0. Really this was the only chance that Warilla had in the first half as Uni completely dominated possession and field position.
The boys didn’t take their chances and went in at half time 0-0 when they really should have been up by a few. The writing was on the wall and Warilla came out in the second half looking to apply some pressure and managed to get a scrappy goal. The boys couldn’t make their possession count and went down in yet another game that that could have been very different.
RESERVE GRADE – Won 4-0: And speaking of could have been different…the reserve grade team came out against a decent Warilla side that had some pace up front. One of their strikers was an up and coming player that impressed last year in their youth grade, however managed to butcher about six genuine chances in front of the Uni goal.
Remarkably it was 0-0 at half time and Uni was still in it. In the 2nd half the boys stepped it up and Thanh ‘Andy’ Le ripped two defenders down the left hand side into the box and whipped a cross in. After a couple of miskicks and rebounds George Franco was on hand to finish well and put UOWFC in the lead. Shortly after France smashed another one in to make it 2-0, with a highlight reel somersault celebration to top it off. He was always going to get his hat trick the way he was playing, and rose for a cracking header to make it 3-0 and seal the points and the man of the match award. Luke Vandenburgh thought one step ahead of the play and pounced on a rebound to make it 4-0 and a great win for the ressies.
FIRST GRADE – Lost 0-1: This was always going to be a tight game with only 3 points separating Warilla and UOWFC on the table.
Uni came out strongly in the first ten minutes but in a similar way to the previous week dropped off in intensity and started looking for the direct long ball to the strikers too much. Warilla bounced and grabbed a very scrappy goal from a corner that glanced of a Lochlainn Ryan head at the near post and was bundled in by the Warilla player. Some great last ditch tackles by eventual man of the match Scott Mawbey and defender Craig Hood kept the boys in the game, with Mitch Preston and Ross Graham also putting in typically solid performances. The second half was much better and the Uni boys looked to try and get something back. Goalkeeper Liam Stevenson wasn’t too busy but still had a couple of important saves to make to tip the ball around the post. The boys couldn’t find that last dangerous pass to unlock the compact Warilla defence however could easily have had a penalty when Lochlainn Ryan was bundled over in the Warilla box as he was about to jump for a dangerous corner. It was not to be and it finished up as a 0-1 loss.