Story courtesy of Northern NSW Football

Match of the Round
Cooks Hill United (1st) vs. Wallsend FC (5th)
Saturday 19th May, 2:30 pm, Newcastle Athletics Field

With coach Graham Law’s return to Cooks Hill last weekend, the league leaders proved once again why they’re the team to beat and this Saturday they come up against a Wallsend side that’s only won one game from their past five outings.

This match will mark Cooks Hill’s seventh match at home at the AthField, and the Cookers are yet to even drop a point whilst playing there, however, the Red Devils have already shown this year that their attack can be deadly when it’s firing.

That may be difficult for Wallsend though, following injuries to Ty Goldsmith, Matt Williams and Travas McCabe who collectively have scored 10 of the team’s 17 goals this season as they play a team who have only conceded two goals this season at the Newcastle Athletics Field.

Wallsend coach Ben Edwards suggested that although his injured players are still not officially ruled out of this weekend’s clash, the next few weeks’ focus will be on younger reserve players stepping up to replace their hurt stars in order to scrape out results.

“I won’t risk them at this part of the season – We’ve still got a long time to go so I’d prefer saving them for the second half of the season,” Edwards stated.

“Hopefully some of the young blokes put up a performance that stands up and shows that they want to be in first grade and then we’ll try and reset when they [the injured players] start coming back.”

When asked of the impact Law’s return will have on Cooks Hill, Edwards joked saying, “I was hoping we had them when he was away” and confessed that he was ready for one of their toughest games of the year.

“I’m expecting them to be quality as always.

“They’re a team that when they get a chance, they take it.

“Hopefully we can outwork them in the midfield and put the pressure to stop that ball getting to their attack up front.”