It was a tight and intense affair in Round 4 of District League at King Mickey Park, with both Warilla and Picton vying for their second win of the season.

After a dull opening half an hour, the match sprung into action as Warilla were awarded a penalty in the 29^th minute after Samuel Dickson appeared to play the man rather than the ball in a congested 18-yard box.

With an aura of confidence, Dylan Atkins stepped up the spot. Sending the goalkeeper the wrong way, Atkins stroked the ball into the bottom right corner to give Warilla the lead.

Feeling hard done by, a fired-up Picton took offence to a foul immediately after the kick off and started a series of player and referee clashes that continued throughout the game.

After continual squabbling, the referee took action dismissing Picton’s Benjamin Roberts in the 42^nd minute for dissent. Besides being a player down so early, Picton had to comprehend losing arguably their most influential player in the front third of the afternoon thus far.

Minutes after Roberts dismissal, the half time whistle blew, somewhat settling the tense atmosphere around the ground.

Appearing to have regrouped at half time, Picton took the ascendancy during the opening period of the second half.

Mitchell Hall adequately took upon the role of the main man in Picton's attack from Roberts and created multiple chances in the first 15 minutes, which included forcing Warilla's keeper, Blake Russell, into making a fantastic double-save.

However, as the half progressed, Picton lost momentum and resorted back to their bickering, culminating in Picton’s coach seeing the red in the 72^nd minute.

Moments after, the effects of having 10 men became apparent as Picton began to become stretched in defence and were lucky not to concede on the break in the 80^th minute when Warilla’s Reece McIntosh narrowly missed the far post after lobbing the keeper.

McIntosh’s miss came back to haunt Warilla when Picton were awarded a penalty four minutes later after Hall was brought down in the area.

With crucial points on the line, Brendan Berkeley, buried the ball into the left side-netting, to bring the scores level.

The final minutes of the match were chaotic and end to end, with the better chances to Warilla but Picton managed to hold onto a point despite being reduced to 9 men during stoppage time.

Josh Maiolo received his marching orders with minutes to spare also for dissent.

At the end of the day, Warilla will feel like they lost two points having had the better of the chances and having an extra man advantage for the entirety of the second half.

Picton, on the other hand, will be content with picking up a point off the back of a poor performance but could struggle next week against Thirroul as a consequence of their poor discipline.

 

Saturday 13^th April @ King Mickey Park

Warilla – 1 (Atkins 29’)

Picton – 1 (Berkeley 85’)

Warilla – Blake RUSSELL, Martin CASTELL, Drew SHAW, Stewart ROBERTSON, Nathan PESLER, Jack FLOWER, Russell CRIGHTON, Breton GERIBO, Daniel ATKINS, Adrian MONTALBANO, Reece McIntosh

Substitutes – Daniel PEREZ (on for Montalbano), Jason SAVRO (on for Geribo), Sasa GUGALJ, Bredin SHAW

Picton – Robert CRUICKSHANK, Samuel DICKSON, Sebastian MYERS, Connor DYMOND, Brendan BERKELEY, Nathan MACGRAW, Michael HEYHORN, Josh MAIOLO, Mitchell HALL, Benjamin ROBERTS, Matthew TESRIERO

Substitutes – Conner O’NEIL (on for Dymond), Daniel NELSON (on for Dickson), Jack TASESKI, Guy LEE.

Referee – Reece EDWARDS

Assistants – Andrew THOMASON, Joel NEES

Report by Nicholas Wilson, on Twitter @_nicwilson

Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn