Woonona Sharks hosted Picton Rangers at Ocean Park with both sides battling against relegation. Woonona won the reverse fixture earlier on in the season with a very convincing 2-0 victory. Woonona was full of confidence after pushing 3rd placed Albion Park to their limit last week while Picton was edged by South Coast United after a late penalty. Woonona was 3 points ahead of Picton and 2 points ahead of South Coast United before Round 19. A win by either side would boost their survival hopes while a loss could be detrimental to their season.

The match began and both teams looked nervous to hold the ball and control the game. They both attempted to attack but neither could find the space they both craved. 5 minutes in, Woonona had their space and a golden opportunity to take the lead very early on. Trent Worthington played a fantastic ball through to Lachlan O’Gorman which left him with almost an open net, but he couldn’t strike the ball sweet enough, missing the target and letting Picton off the hook.

The game started to build intensity and saw players dive into challenges and leave nothing to chance. As a result of that, a few early yellow cards were handed out to both sides. This intensity seemed to benefit the away side who begun to make more and more attacking chances. Alex Mojsoski looked the most promising for Picton going forward. Mojsoski had the best chance of the half for Picton when he ran through, but he failed to convert and even if he would have, the offside flag would have ruled it out.

Joel Thomas took on the Picton defence and cut inside late on in the first half. He produced an amazing curling shot, headed for the top right corner. But Robert Cruickshank made easily the save of the match, diving high and getting a strong couple of fingers to the ball, tipping it over the apex of the bar and out for a Woonona corner.

The half remained tight but neither side had another highlight in the half and the sides entered the sheds at half-time level with the deadlock still intact.

The second half saw Picton come out more intense and more willingly pushing players forward. It was Mojsoski who once again was leading the Picton attack, but he couldn’t find the finish on back to back chances. He skied his first sight at goal and struck the other so wrong that it resulted in a Woonona throw in.

With the second half at a stalemate still and Woonona needed to change something, an early sub saw import Kwang Kim come off the bench. The change coach Dan McGoldrick didn’t want to see was his side go down to 10 men. But in the 58th minute, an unnecessary challenge from captain Christopher Gibson, resulted in him seeing his second yellow card of the match. This gave the visitors a clear advantage and they almost capitalised immediately. The resulting free-kick saw Jarred Morley hit an inswinger cross from the left edge. Both teams failed to get a touch on the ball and it skimmed past the far post as the home crowd let go a sigh of relief.

Morley continued to cause the Woonona defence trouble, he ran through one on one and put it past Jacob Madden but the Picton number 8 would be denied by the offside flag and the match would remain deadlocked. Picton remained positive throwing players forward and challenging the Woonona defence. Nathan Macgraw had a good chance when he found space, but he caught the ball wrong and hit it wide of the left post.

Brendan Pattman then pushed Woonona forward, he picked the ball up just in front of the halfway line and drove towards the Picton penalty area, beating the defence with pace, he found a gap and let his shot fly but he hit it straight at the Picton keeper.

When the game fell into added time, both sides felt desperate to find the winner. Picton pushed forward but was caught out at the back. Woonona cleared the ball up to Kwang Kim who had open pasture. He dribbled the ball at a full sprint from halfway and pulled away from the Picton defence. With nobody but Kim and Cruickshank in sight, Kim ran up and into the Picton 18-yard box, took his time, faked left and hit the ball right. The ball rolled and hit the post, rolling out for a goal kick. The reaction of the Woonona squad told the tale as they fell to their backs with their hands on their heads as the full-time whistle blew. The game finished without a goal but not without a golden chance.

Woonona now sits at 12 points, 3 points ahead of Picton. Picton, however, is 3 points away from South Coast United who pulled off a huge win against Tarrawanna Blueys Picton will be hoping to achieve exactly what South Coast United had, as they face Tarrawanna in Round 20. While Woonona will face Corrimal, who they defeated 2-0 earlier in the season, away from home in their next fixture. With 3 points separating the bottom 3 teams, and South Coast United and Woonona still to face in their reverse fixture, the relegation battle is nowhere near over yet.

I caught up with Picton coach, Brett Morley, and asked him his thoughts about the result. Click the link to listen to the whole interview.

https://soundcloud.com/liam-emerton/fsc-interview-brett-morley-picton-rangers

 

Full time

Woonona Sharks – 0

Picton Rangers – 0

 

Woonona Sharks

J.Madden, C.Besgrove, D.Nikolovski, C. Gibson, K.Alali, D. Djukic, B.Pattman, L.O’Gorman, J.Thomas, T.Worthington, V.Merxhushi.

Replacements

K.Kim, J.Mortimer, T.Mindzas, K.Del, Y.Mavrikis

 

Picton Rangers

R.Cruickshank, M.Heyhorn, K.Mitchell, D.Nelson, B.Berkeley, J.Morley, A.Mojsoski, C.Dymond, L.Storkey, S.Miranda

Replacements

N.Macgraw, R.Hirota, W.McLeod, J.Howard, L.O’Bree

 

Referee

Blake Herbert

Assistant Referees

Jackson Cocks

 

Report by Liam Emerton

Twitter @Liamemerton

Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn