First Grade |

Woden-Weston FC 1 (Sarah Whitfield 60’) def. by Canberra United Academy 2 (Hayley Taylor-Young 20’, 62’)

Hayley Taylor-Young struck twice on Sunday at Melrose to help the Canberra United Academy jump Woden-Weston back into the top four.

Key moments |

Opening goal: The Academy broke up a promising Woden-Weston attack before going forward themselves, but that was broken up by Woden. Jemima Millar-Carton then played the ball back to her keeper, but it was picked off by Taylor-Young who streaked through and finished calmly.

Equaliser: After a sustained period of pressure Woden-Weston won a corner on the hour mark, and Sarah Whitfield got the last touch as the ball was swung in close to the goal line to pull her side level.

Instant response: No sooner had the hosts pulled level though and they were behind, as Taylor-Young raced forward from kick-off, beat her defender and chipped a lovely effort over the top of Lilian Geale in goals to put the Academy ahead for good.

Next up |

Woden-Weston will now get up for the challenge of taking on Belconnen United in the Federation Cup final, which is set to be a belter on Saturday at Deakin. The Academy will take on Monaro on Sunday in a rescheduled match at Hawker before facing Canberra Olympic in round 11.

Reserves |

Woden-Weston 1 (Burdett 55’) def. by Canberra United Academy 2 (Gidis 21’, Kimpton 30’)

U/17’s |

Woden-Weston 1 (Suckling 13’) def. by Canberra United Academy 3 (Reithmuller 5’, Palframan 78’, Cannon 87’)

U/15’s |

Woden-Weston 4 (Suckling 12’, Hayes 42’, Perry 44’, Stone 56’) def. Canberra United Academy 1 (Listar 69’)

Contributed by Tony Choy

After a period of playing together and gelling as a team the Academy held high hopes of an improved performance against Woden-Weston at Melrose Synthetic.  What they did not account for was the pea-soup fog at the 9am kick-off that provided an eerie atmosphere akin to an X-Files / Twilight Zone scene.  Perhaps this was a portent of things to come, but it preceded a tough display from the Academy side.  Errant passing and poor ball control saw possession turned over way too frequently. In fact the Academy were fortunate to only be down 0-1 at HT after a well-flighted corner from the right was not controlled by the keeper and ended up spilling over the goal line.  There was a glimmer of hope to restore parity, as the visitors created an excellent chance to score through good work down the right side of the field.  A centred ball along the carpet was fired towards goal on target, but the Woden-Weston keeper was equal to the task and parried the dangerous strike away.  With the sun now shining and a positive start to the second half a fightback beckoned.  However, defensive errors continued to haunt the Academy much like the Matildas and the score seemed to quickly blow out to 0-3 with a couple of quick goals from the hosts.  Woden-Weston had a 4-0 lead before the visitors scored a consolation goal from distance.