A top of the table clash featured two unbeaten sides where Albion Park hosted Woonona Sharks in The Builders Club Women’s Division 1 fixture at Terry Reserve on Wednesday night. The round 7 match was expected to be a showdown where the winner of these match ups may just come out on top.

It was a cold evening and the freezing weather didn’t faze Albion Park, who came out on fire. They held most of the possession early in the contest, building pressure on the Woonona defence. The Sharks who had only conceded once all season to this point showed strong resilience in defence, breaking down the attacks and attempting to counter through swift passes of their own.

The first real opportunity came the way of Albion Park after a corner was hoisted into the area in which the ensuing scramble saw Woonona’s Kelsey Clements react quickest clearing it from any potential danger.

Park’s top goal scorer Brittany Ring looked as if she was the woman to break the deadlock early in the contest, with her bursting speed catching the Woonona defence out numerous times. But the final finish on this occasion was lacking, succumbing to the ever-present pressure of Woonona’s keeper.

When presented with a second opportunity, Ring would not disappoint. Woonona’s Melanie Ireland misjudged a bouncing ball which allowed Ring to break, draw the keeper and comfortably convert from close range. Woonona’s defence wouldn’t have been pleased with the goal concession however it showed that when you give the top teams any opportunity, you run the great risk of being punished.

After conceding the goal, Woonona began to catch the game a little more and switch the focus into attack. They tried to catch Albion Park off guard, who had all but dominated the possession so far.

After earning a free kick, Woonona’s Le-Tisha Kable provided the visitors with a chance to pull their side level again. Her sublime free kick whipped in with power failed to find a Woonona attacker. A wasted opportunity for the Sharks and a lucky escape for Albion Park as surely a touch from a Sharkie would have seen the scores level.

Woonona started to build some tremendous pressure on the hosts who had struggled since scoring. This time, Elyse McNally ran through Albion Parks defence, her diagonal run was timed to perfection but she sliced her shot wide after running too wide herself.

Albion Park recomposed themselves from this point and began to dominate the ball as they had done previously. With about 10 minutes left in the half, Albion Park thought they had doubled their advantage through Kaelah Austin but the officials ruled the number 6 offside, with little complaint from the crowd or players.

Neither team had another genuine highlight and the half finished with Albion Park holding the slight advantage.

An intense start to the second half saw neither team generally build much pressure, both teams looked nervous and lost the ball because of it.

In the 55^th minute, Ring had a thunderous shot from outside the area which looked as if it was homing for the top corner but a fantastic save by the Woonona number 1, Khalia Rasch saw the ball glance over the crossbar.

Ring was in amongst the action again shortly after she was denied. Her header from close range glanced across the face of goal, causing her to drop her head into her hands in pure frustration as she perhaps would have expected to do better.

Woonona’s defence was holding strong as you would expect and Melanie Ireland, was hugely instrumental as a sweeper besides her one hiccup. She made a fantastic last ditch tackle in the box as Albion Park looked set to double their lead.

The game etched back and forth with Woonona doing much of their attacking on the left wing, but on too many occasions, crosses fell short or were not finding their mark.

The second half seemed to drop off as both teams seamed to feel the fatigue of a big match; neither team had any genuine goal scoring chances in the final 20 minutes of the match. Albion Park clinching a huge victory against the top side in the competition. They now top of the league due to their vastly superior goal difference.

Richard Davis, the coach of Albion Park had this to say after the game. “I really think our finishing let us down tonight, we played good, held the ball and played feet but yeah, our finishing let us down”. Mixed emotions had Davis say, “Well you’d think they way I’m talking we had lost this match, but I just want our team to put away the chances.”. Davis also spoke about how their pace and width is Albion Parks biggest advantage. “We try and play out wide and use our pace, we try to exploit the other team’s wide defenders and it didn’t work as well as it could have tonight”.

Final Score

Albion Park - 1 (Brittany Ring 31’)
Woonona Sharks FC - 0

Albion Park
F. Atkins, K.Austin, T.Davis, M.Foscarini, J.Hanly, L.Hillard, N.McCracken, R.McGartland, B.Ring, P.Robinson, C, Suttle, S.Tungai, K.Vaughn, N.Carbone, H.Markilic.

Woonona Sharks
B.Sinead, S. Clark, A.Graham, L.Ireland, M.Ireland, L.Kable, G.Lang, E.McNally, S.Peters, K.Rasch, J.Van De Voorde, S.Walker, J.Wheatly, S.Heaty, M.Moore, K.Clements

Report by Liam Emerton