Hamilton Olympic pulled a point out of the fire and could have stolen all three in the ‘Match of the Round’ as they produced a stunning rear-guard action in the final 11 minutes against Maitland.
Hamilton Olympic 2 (Smith 79’, Pratt 81’) drew with Maitland Magpies 2 (Comerford 32’, M.Thompson (p) 49’) at Darling Street Oval.
Olympic were down by two goals heading towards the final ten minutes, but a stunning strike from Scott Smith and a vicious volley from Sean Pratt ensured honours were even after 90 minutes.
The home side started the game on the front foot as Rhys Cooper – in his third match back from injury – wreaked havoc in the attacking third.
Cooper’s first chance burst through the hands of Magpies keeper Matt Trott and into the goal and minutes later Cooper had a wonderful chance to break the deadlock from inside the box on the right, but he slid his shot wide to the left.
Matt Comerford made Olympic pay for missing their earlier chances in the 32nd minute after an intricate interchange of passing between himself and Matt Thompson.
Comerford played a one-two with the former Newcastle Jets Captain and chipped Tyler Warren in the Hamilton goal to make it 1-0.
After conceding Hamilton struggled to make any headway with the Magpies controlling much of the ball as they headed to the break with a one-goal advantage.
Valentine Phoenix 1 (C.Brown 65’, McGinley 86’) defeated with Lambton Jaffas 1 (Griffiths (p) 25’) at Cahill Oval.
For the second time, this season Valentine skipper Scott McGinley proved to be a hero against the Jaffas, scoring in the final five minutes to make it two wins from two against Lambton this season.
The Phoenix jumped to second on the PS4 NPL Northern NSW ladder, and within a point of the first placed Jaffas with another late win at Cahill Oval.
Lambton started strongly and had the lead midway through the opening half.
Tom Waller whipped a low free-kick towards the near post in the 24th minute which deflected off the outstretched leg of Wilson Edwards and into his arm as he attempted to clear the ball.
Referee Ryan Gallagher pointed to the spot and Jaffas striker Ryan Griffiths dispatched the spot kick with ease past Perry Budden in the Phoenix goal.
Lambton took a 1-0 lead into the sheds at the break, but a stunning strike from Valentine’s Chris Brown soon levelled up the match.
Brown hit Matt Paul’s corner first time on the volley, flicking it with his left boot and curling it inside the far-right post.
Charlestown City Blues 4 (Ferguson 8’, 58’, Steward 31’, Maguire 77’) defeated Newcastle Jets Youth 0 at Lisle Carr Oval.
Charlestown returned to form in style on Saturday afternoon as they scored four in a comprehensive display against the Jets Youth.
Rene Ferguson bagged a double to go top of the golden boot leaderboard as the Blues put four past the Jets for a second time this season.
Ferguson’s first came after less than eight minutes after Daniel Bartlett played him in between the Jets defence. Ferguson produced an astute finish, chipping keeper Tristan Esquilant to make it 1-0.
The Blues grabbed their second just after the half-hour mark through youngster Joel Steward. Steward was played in on goal down the right edge and hit a volley after the first bounce which sailed up and over Esquilant and inside the left post.
Charlestown led 2-0 at the break and the Jets Youth felt more pain when they returned, from the boot of Ferguson.
A shanked clearance from Esquilant fell to substitute Jack Tressider who teed up Ferguson. The marksman slotted home to make it 3-0.
Veteran striker Josh Maguire finished off the rout in the 77th minute after the Jets failed to clear their lines and Maguire slotted home from just to the left of the goal.
Broadmeadow Magic 3 (Fajkovic 8’, Oxborrow 53’, Bradbury 72’) defeated Lake Macquarie Roosters 0 at Macquarie Field.
Broadmeadow extended their winning streak to five matches with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Lake Macquarie on Sunday.
The match was tight for the opening half hour, however, when Lakes’ midfield tyro Justin Broadley was given his marching orders after just half an hour, Broadmeadow took control and never looked back.
Magic opened the scoring when Jon Griffiths over hit a pass down the left edge for Dino Fajkovic, with the ball trickling to Roosters keeper Benn Kelly.
Kelly didn’t grab the ball cleanly and it rolled through his legs which Fajkovic ran onto and finished into an empty net.
The afternoon was made a whole lot more difficult in the 31st minute when Broadley bumped Mitch Oxborrow to the ground and received a second yellow card. Lakes were forced to play the final hour with just ten men.
While they held firm until the break, it was Oxborrow who would strike early in the second half. James Virgili found space down the right and Oxborrow back-heeled a superb finish to make it 2-0.
Kale Bradbury sealed the 3-0 victory for Magic in the 72nd minute with his strike from the top of the box which powered inside the left corner.
Adamstown Rosebud 2 (Ensor 2’, Holzheimer 86’) defeated Weston Bears 0 at Rockwell Automation Park.
Adamstown coach Nick Webb recorded his first victory as head coach of the Rosebuds as they defeated Weston at Rockwell Automation Park.
Two fine goals from Ryan Ensor and Cameron Holzheimer along with a strong defensive effort ensured all three points would head back to Adamstown.
The game was just two minutes old when the Rosebuds found the opening goal.
Dayne Pawlik found striker Justin Tannock in the box who flicked his back heel up to Ryan Ensor whose first-time volley snuck inside Kane Runge’s near post.
Adamstown continued to probe and could have had a second soon after, but they took just the one goal lead to the sheds.
After the break, the Rosebud’s continued their strong defensive shift ensuring Weston couldn’t find a breach and late in the match Cameron Holzheimer sealed the match with a superb strike from outside the box.
The former Jets Youth man controlled turned and struck a powerful drive which picked out the top left corner and put the icing on an impressive display from the visitors.
Holzheimer’s thunder was almost stolen by an incredible moment just a couple of minutes later when Rosebud’s Alex Read cleared a ball over the sideline into a blue ute which was driving out of the ground.
Read smacked the clearance over the sideline and it travelled towards inside the front window of the car, earning howls of laughter from the crowd.
Drama aside, it was Adamstown who jumped to ninth of the ladder and more positive results in the coming weeks could keep Nick Webb beyond this season.
Webb said his first PS4 NPL win was “really pleasing.”
“They showed some resilience today and a bit of mental toughness that we have been hoping for so I’m very happy with the result.
The club’s second clean sheet of the year was another important step in Webb’s eyes.
“What I’ve been trying to do is create a bit more desperation and hunger and that certainly helped us today, even late on they had an opportunity.
“We never gave up, we put pressure on the guy to shoot over the bar. That’s what we’ve sort of worked on and it worked until the end.”
Webb laughed when speaking about the ute incident saying it was a “fantastic effort” from Read and “very funny”. But, all jokes aside Adamstown’s boss was happy the driver had his window down.
“He was probably trying to put it about 400 metres into the bushes to clear it. Lucky, he didn’t have his window up or he probably would have smashed it!”
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