Continuing on with the form the side showed last week the error rate
was eliminated in one of the best games played at Bensons Lane. A
young and physical Bathurst came determined not to concede an early
goal, stacking the midfield and relying on quick counter attacks in
an effort to break down the solid Hawks defence. With Raph Larnach,
Rob Cooper, Daniel Baker and Dean Bertenshaw in front of Davis
Alvares in goal fending off any danger the game was fairly even in
the first half with most of the play confined to a congested mid
field battle.
With
the side settling well into this years revised structure the midfield
trio of Steve Klinkacovski, Luke Vanderburg and Gavin Hartge combined
well with the defence to supply front-runners Marc Sluiter, Matt
Sumeghy and Paul Cooper with some pretty slick passing moves. An
injury to Gavin saw Jim Vasiliou introduced to fill the gap in
midfield running up to half time with the score 0-0.
Although dominating possession the probing runs and passes seemed to
fall just short of the mark as Bathurst held on in the second half.
With the game into it’s final stages and the hard yards done, the
fresh legs of Edwin George and Andrew Jones were introduced up front
with Edwin picking up the ball on the sideline, cutting in and driving
home an unstoppable shot from an acute angle in the 80th
min. With nothing to lose Bathurst went after the draw, providing an
opportunity for Edwin to run at the defence and off load a fine set up
pass for Andrew to guide into the net to seal the win.
Man
of the match was Luke Vanderburg.
Reserve Grade: Hawkesbury 4
Bathurst 1
With Bathurst fielding a young side the first half was an end-to-end
affair with both sides stopping the attacking thrusts with some
outstanding defensive work. With the Hawks becoming more confident
as the game went on they were able to apply more pressure at the
offensive end forcing a corner that resulted in Nathan Gray heading
in mid way through the half before a Bathurst raid saw the result
1-1 at the break.
The
second half was all Hawks as the side found its cohesion to open up
the opposition defence for Chris Gee to side volley in from close
range early in the half. Capitalizing on taking the lead the team
settled, keeping possession for longer periods, resulting in a through
pass to Michael Goszko who raced away to seal the game. David Lloyd
added the icing to the cake with fine goal taken from the edge of the
box for the final score.
