Sewfa results Round 13‏

Palace v. City (seniors)

Fielding relatively youthful sides, both Palace and City appeared as quite different looking teams than the two who met in last years grand final.

Blending junior and experienced players has been common practice at both camps and in recent fixtures picking a winner has never been easy for the tipsters. Last Saturdays encounter was no exception. With slightly favorable conditions in the first half, City werenot able to penetrate a frugal Palace defense. Neither goalkeeper was genuinely tested andthe 0-0 score line at the interval was a testament to the respect each side had for the other. City did break the deadlock, however, midway through the second half when Erin Ireland finished off a fine move with technical excellence. That was the only time the scorekeepers were to be troubled as the game essentially became a battle in the midfield sector. The result sees City close the gap on the top two sides and with only one fixture remaining in the home and away, there is still plenty of interest in the top four placings as the season continues to unfold.

Goal Scorers: E. Ireland

Best players: Emma Mackay (City), Lauren Gilcrist (Palace), Lauren Birch (City)

County 4 d Villa 2

 

County were definitely fired up and started the game with a high intensity, putting a lot of pressure on Villa’s backs early. This constant pressure resulted in the first goal for County coming from a high looping shot that sailed over the Villa keeper’s gloves, 1-0.

Then a goal for handball in the box, quickly slotted home by the barest of margins with the keeper diving over the ball. Villa pressed on a few occasions but lacked any cohesive element to finish the moves off.

Some days you wish you had a camera, Julie Beck rushes across the park to trap a high goal kick and somehow manages to trap the ball perfectly except she is standing on the ball, time froze and she gracefully up ended on the ground with County collecting the ball.

The first half ended with another goal to County with the score at halftime being 3-0 to County.

The second half saw a more resilient Villa, with a few attacking moves almost paying off early. County kept pushing and were again rewarded with another handball in the box, this time the keeper saved it but the penalty taker followed up to slot it home.

This seemed to spark a fire under the Villa girls and they quickly scored from A Beck and M Wilmot to get the score to 4-2. Now the game was really on, Villa was finishing fast andpressing hard but County managed to hold out with the end result being County running out 4-2 winners.

Goal Scorers: County A.Paspaliaris 2, S.Bawden, F.Bueti

​​​Villa A. Beck, M.Wilmot

BestPlayers: A.Paspaliaris(County), A.Beck(Villa), A.Pilven(Villa)

UNITED 3 d PORTLAND 2

As the finals series draws closer, United needed to secure a win on Saturday. Drawing the top 3 teams in the last four rounds provided a challenge to the reds and they were determined to claim the points against Portland.

Portland started the match with a change to their regular structure by playing club stalwart Donna Kilgour in attack as opposed to her regular defensive role. However, once again theUnited defence held firm, with the goal keeper only getting two touches in the first half. Perhaps playing their best half of the season, United linked well along the pitch, with Sarah Mariano running rampant along the right. United were able to take the lead after Mariano finished a pinpoint cross from Keisha Seiler and a second soon followed when a save by Portland’s keeper was not collected cleanly and was placed into the net.

A third added after the half time break saw United lose their urgency and they were soon punished when Portland found a chink the backline and fired home a rocket into the top corner. Portland scored their second shortly after in an identical fashion by young gunMikayla Atwell. The last minutes of the match wore away with both teams throwing everything they had at the ball. The final whistle saw a relieved United claim the three points to consolidate their position on the ladder.

Goal scorers: ​United – S Mariano, T Kourmouzis, H Heemskerk

Portland – K Kilgour, M Atwell

Best: ​​S Mariano (United), H Heemskerk (United), A Daniel (Portland)

Wanderers 5 def Millicent

At Millicent Wanderers continued its winning run against a hard working Millicent. As hard as Millicent tried they had no answer to the running players like E Ripper & J Donghia and with L McCallum intercepting a lot of Millicents forward moves Wanderers went in at half time 3-0 up. Millicent this year have shown that they never give up continued to work hard through midfielders B Hann K Sawtell Wanderers still had to work hard and with the defence led by goalkeeper H Kent who made some great saves Millicent restricted Wanderers to 2 goals in the 2nd half while Millicents N Lambert had 3 good shots on goal, for no result. Final score Wanderers 5 Millicent 0.

Best players: J. Donghia(Wanderers) L McCallum( Wanderers) B Hann(Millicent)

U14s

Palace 3 d City

In near perfect weather conditions, Palace U14 girls stepped onto the park to play against friendly rivals City.

Both teams were ready for a tough match with well experienced players on both sides making it an exciting game for all to watch.

As a team Palace juniors were raring to go with their pint size striker in Portia Holdmanworking hard to push the ball forward and older sister Jordan in goals, taking any opportunity to come out and stop a goal.

City too were ready for a challenge and their well structured back line made it very hard for Palace to break through. Some

super goal keeping added to the entertainment.

When the whistle blew at full time, it was 3-0 Palace’s way, but the smile on the faces of both teams didn’t reflect on the final result. The game was well played by both sides.

Best players: A.Hales(Palace), L.Oberer(Palace), E.Birch(City)

Villa 5 d County 1

The game burst into life with County scoring from the kick off in what would have to be one of the quickest goals this season.Slightly unsettled by this turn of events Villa were slow to respond and lacked a bit of drive and determination to get the ball allowing County to capitalize on their early advantage. However after a tight 10 minute tussle, Villa finally prevailed and got on the score board. This was the start of a three goal scoring spree by Villa that led us into halftime with the scores at 3-1 Villa’s way.The second half was more Villa’s than County’s with Villa netting twice more to finish the game 5-1 winners.

The midfield from both teams worked hard and put together some lovely flowing football. It was great to see young R Morgan return to the field in the second half having accidentally stopped a thunder bolt like pass from Miki Hollands with the side of her face, all good and no damage.Well played both teams and what a future women’s soccer has in the South East with you all as players.

Best Players: M.Wilmot(Villa), J.Wood(Villa), S.Thomson(County)

Goal Scorers: Villa N.Kozak 4, S.Mccowat

​​County S.Thomson