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.
