Story courtesy of Northern NSW Football
Match of the Round
Cooks Hill United 4 (Lee Ashton x3, Nick Russell) def. Wallsend FC 1 (Sam Bradshaw)
Saturday 19th May, 2:30 pm, Newcastle Athletics Field
Cooks Hill successfully carved their authority on the competition following a dominant victory over Wallsend and in the process, retained their position at the top of the table.
The odds were always stacked against the Red Devils with injuries to key attacking men Ty Goldsmith and Travas McCabe but despite that, it would be the away side who took the early advantage through Sam Bradshaw who made it 1-0 and netted his sixth of the year so far.
Their shock lead didn’t last long though after Wallsend’s Tom Adams was deemed to have made a foul in the box leading to a penalty kick that was coolly slotted away by Nick Russell to equalise the score.
With only ten minutes remaining in the first half, Cooks Hill made their possession and control of the game finally count as Lee Ashton converted a brilliant solo effort with a stunning finish after beating the Wallsend defence with ease.
Just moments after scoring his first though, he would double his tally for the match after a deflected shot dribbled across the line to double Cooks Hill’s lead as they headed into the half-time break.
The second half saw both sides tussle in gaining control throughout the middle of the park but resulted in neither team being able to create any clear-cut chances.
That was until a Wallsend defensive error would be pounced upon by Ashton once again who made no mistakes in front of goal to complete a terrific hat-trick and seal Cooks Hill’s tenth straight league win at the AthField and Wallsend’s third straight loss.
Wallsend coach Ben Edwards stated he didn’t believe that the score wasn’t a true indication of how well his team performed.
“My thought on the result was that it didn’t reflect how we played,” Edwards said.
“The 4-1 score-line shows Cooks Hill dominated us, but if you were there watching, I think you’d see we had it on them in points of the game.
“We matched it with them big time. We went 1-0 up, and then to have a penalty, that a lot of people are confused about, go against us, it deflated the boys.
“2-1 probably would have been a fair result of the game…I felt we did a lot better than the score-line shows.”
Cooks Hill coach Graham Law displayed his happiness for the way his team played but also praised Wallsend for their performance without their star players.
“I was again very happy with how we controlled the game,” said Law.
“It was enjoyable to play a team that try to play football and when they [Wallsend] get their key players back, they will threaten the top four.”