Story and photo courtesy of Northern NSW Football

Match of the Round
Warners Bay 4 (Jenna Kingsley 2, Nadja Squires 2) defeated Wallsend 2 (Sass Seaborn, Libby Copus-Brown) at Wallsend Park on Sunday. Half-time: 2-2.

A thrilling match of the round with Warners Bay taking the chocolates in a 4-2 victory over Wallsend at Wallsend Park on Sunday.

Wallsend was first on the scoresheet when Libby Copus-Brown slotted a penalty into the bottom right corner 18 minutes in, narrowly missed by Bay keeper Maddi Latter.

The Devil’s wouldn’t keep the lead for long with a long-range free-kick thunderbolt from Nadja Squires finding the back of the net just ten minutes later.

The to and fro continued with Wallsend scoring a few minutes later when a Danielle Nicol free kick from out wide found Sass Seaborn in the box who turned and slotted the ball into the bottom left corner.

Cassidy Davis and Jenna Kingsley were able to combine as usual. A through ball from Davis found Kingsley who drew Danielle Redding off her line, put the visitor’s back in the game just before halftime.

Sian Keating is certainly pushing for a starting spot in first grade after another strong performance for Warner’s Bay in the backline. Throughout the match, Corinne Krupa was constantly in the mix in both attack and defence, in potentially her best game of the season, along with goalkeeper Maddi Latter.

On the opposing side, Sass Seaborn performed to her usual high standard and constantly threatened the Bay’s defensive line. Alice Munro and young Ellie Hall were clinical across the park with Danielle Redding making some excellent saves for Wallsend.

 HUNTER SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

In the second half, Kingsley and Squires both grabbed their second goal of the match, handing the Bay a 4-2 victory.

Warner’s Bay player-coach Cassidy Davis thought their intensity increased in the second half.

“I think we were really flat and our attack was poor in the first half,” Davis said.

“At halftime, we spoke about urgency and the quality of our passes which I think really improved in the second half.

“We will be working on our communication and being quick on the ball in preparation for Merewether next week.”

Wallsend coach Marc Hingston praised his side for their effort after a tough 3 games in 7 days.

“To stick with a team that has 3 W-League players, I was really proud of the girls today,” Hingston said.

“We dominated the first half and their goals came at the back of our mistakes and Warners bay are a team that will capitalise on that.

“We really focused on making no mistakes in the middle because Tara, Jenna and Cass will counter-attack and we spoke about who was marking those players and making sure they didn’t have any space to play in.”