Story courtesy of Northern NSW Football
Wallsend FC 2 (Ty Goldsmith x2) drew Singleton Strikers 2 (Jordan Phelan, Tom Hume)
Sunday 15th April, 2:30 pm, The Gardens
For the first time this year, Wallsend would finally get the chance to play at their home ground, The Gardens, however, although they continued their undefeated start to the season, they weren’t able to take all three points after an exciting battle with Singleton in a heated game that saw four penalties given just in the first half.
Wallsend was granted a bonus with the mid-week decision that formidable forward Ty Goldsmith was able to escape a second match suspension and play the match, but it was their opposition who started the match on top.
The Strikers pulled off a fantastic upset last weekend against Belswans, and they looked like they would again surprise onlookers with a hot start to the match when Joe Civello was awarded an early penalty kick, however, Jae Dawes regretfully pushed the ball wide of the upright.
No similar mistakes were made by his teammate Jordan Phelan though, who headed in a Jackson Cox free-kick unopposed minutes later, to put the away team into the lead.
Wallsend heightened their pressure though, and it lead to two penalties being given in quick succession to the home side, both of which were successfully knocked in by Goldsmith, taking his season tally to five.
This happened all before the Strikers were incredibly awarded yet another penalty that unfortunately saw disaster strike twice for Dawes, as he was unable to find the back of the net again, this time due to a reaching save from Red Devils’ goalkeeper Joel Magnee.
The second half kicked off with a game-changing moment as Matt Williams was shown a straight red card for elbowing, leaving Wallsend with ten men and from there, Singleton began to increase their intensity with the extra-man advantage.
Their efforts would finally see some fruition as Tom Hume was able to put away a scrambling goal that had already been saved on the goal-line twice to equal the game up.
Despite both teams having chances to win the game late-on, the game finished in a draw.
Wallsend FC coach Ben Edwards admitted his team didn’t play to their potential and that there were some definite areas that they needed to improve on before their next match in two weeks.
“We can definitely be a lot better,” Edwards said.
“We definitely need to work on the midfield and just closing that space more.
“We were a bit on our heels and needed to pick up the energy a bit more.”
Despite the draw though, Edwards confessed he was impressed with his side’s early form and was confident they can continue improving.
“I think we’ve done exceptionally well, especially for a team that was ranked to come near last by some people.
“As a whole, even with the changes and the suspensions, we’ve come through pretty much unscathed, so I’m pretty happy with what we’ve done.”