The boys faced Unley away this week and again whilst John was looking after the 3B’s at Woodcroft I was holding the fort.

Again, we were a little down on numbers, with a few guys injured, away and doing Accounting courses (Will). Thankfully the B’s were kind enough to lend us Marco and the C’s gave us Cam Basnec in goals, which meant our bench swelled to 3 players for the day.

Early in the season Unley had pushed us hard at home – so I think we all knew this would be a tough contest. A win for us would lock in 3rd on the ladder though so there was still plenty to play for.

As per each week – I asked our boys to remember our strengths – short passing and movement. And to remember to go in hard – as Unley certainly wouldn’t do us any favours.

From the outset, we started well, but for much of the half the contest was even. What was working for us was releasing our pacey wingers – Joshua and Larson, and they were doing a good job getting around the Unley defence.

We opened the scoring from one of these forays – as a long cross released Larson, who’s cutback to the edge of the box was perfect & Matt Bate hammered a lovely strike in low at the far post.

At the other end, Unley were creating chances too – and a couple of times they managed good crosses on, only to miss their forwards. Bas also made a couple of excellent saves to keep us in the hunt.

Half time – 1-0 and the guys were happy. The only issue we had was Mariano was being isolated up front – so we moved Zac up closer to him to try to get the interplay working. Matt was blowing a bit, so he had a rest (no surprise after his game on Tuesday) and Paul came on to meet his old team mates.

The first ten minutes of the second half were excellent. First Marco banged in a lovely header from a corner & soon after a barnstorming run from Zac ended in a goal, only for the ref to call play on – to the confusion of us all. Respect must go to the Unley linesman who agreed it was a goal and thankfully the ref changed his view – 3-0.

Interestingly though – this seemed to spur Unley on, and not long after they scored as a cross to the far post found their striker unmarked to nod home.

Soon after they scored again & from that moment on, we were under siege.

In the dying minutes Bas made a super one-handed save – pushing the ball out past the left post to keep us in front.

Thankfully not long after the whistle blew & we’d held on for a nail-biting win.

Well done to all the boys on a hard-fought win – special mention goes to Bas! A string of excellent saves was probably the difference for us on the day.

That’s it

Saf