St George WSL Versus APIA

A trip to Silverwater awaited us in round 10 to take on the APIA club.

12’s
The 12’s had beaten APIA 12-0  in round 1 but with APIA at full strength for the return encounter a much tougher game was expected. APIA were playing off the quick break but our defence was holding firm. We continued to create goal scoring chances with some fine passing and we had control of the midfield. The final score of 3-1 was a pleasing result and our girls are firmly entrenched in the top 4. Go girls!
A special thanks to all the girls who volunteered to stay back and help the 14’s. You are a credit to the club girls. Take a bow!
14’s
With a win and a draw in their last two games, the 14’s were looking at securing another 3 points against a much fancied APIA team who were sitting 4 places and 9 points above us on the table. In a tremendously gutsy performance, the girls repelled wave after wave of APIA attacking raids to keep them scoreless. Just when a scoreless draw seemed imminent, we broke through to bury the ball in the back of the net and take the three points! It was heart stopping stuff. Great work to the 14’s.

16’s
The 16’s started off without their usual vim and vitality and APIA took full advantage. After 15 minutes we were down 3-0. There were some very interesting home town decisions made by the referee and this did not help our cause. 1 in particular when the ball appeared to be clearly over the line and the ref called play on. To their credit, the girls stuck to their guns and ended up leaving the field with a scoreline of 1-4. They now sit in 6th place on the ladder, 5 points adrift on third and fourth placed teams. However, with a game in hand they are still very much a threat of making the semi finals. The next few games are all important and I am sure Coach Andrew will advise the girls of this.

Reserve Grade
Reserve grade had the misfortune of coming up against an APIA side full of first graders returning from injury and being given some field time by their coach. Try as we could, the class of the opposition shone through and APIA took the points on the day.

First Grade
Coming of 5 points in our last three games, we went into the APIA game with some degree of confidence. In round 1, APIA gave us a bit of a towelling, running out 6-0 winners. In a very even contest we wnet to the break at 1-1 and were looking likely to cause an upset. Even as the second half wore on, we were still looking very much a chance and taking a point home. Alas, it was not to be and APIA managed to score 2 second half goals to take the game 3-1. It may have been a different story if the APIA player who threw a punch at our player had been red carded but the ref didn’t seem to have any knowledge of that particular rule. It was still a great performance by our girls and the 3-1 scoreline flattered the home team. To turn a 0-6 drubbing around to a 1-3 loss showed how much this team has, and still are, improvimg

This weekend we travel to Melita Stadium with kick off times pushed back.
Hope to see you there.

By
The Groupie.