Story and photo courtesy of Northern NSW Football
Match of the Round
Wallsend FC 1 (Sam Bradshaw) def. by Thornton Redbacks FC 6 (Jake Millstead x2, Jye MacKellar, Tallan Martin, Patrick Wand, Trent Partridge)
Sunday 13th May, 2:30 pm, The Gardens
After both teams lost their first game of the season last weekend, it was the Redbacks who bounced back in style defeating the Red Devils with a dominant, high-scoring performance to evict Wallsend to outside the top four.
Although defensively is where Thornton has excelled this season, it was their attacking powers that were on show early as Jye MacKellar and Tallan Martin scored in prompt fashion for the visitors to give them a first-half lead.
Matters only worsened for the home side too as key men Ty Goldsmith, Matt Williams and Travas McCabe all needed to be substituted due to injuries, leaving Wallsend without any replacements for the remainder of the match.
Just minutes before halftime though, Wallsend created a glimmer of hope after being awarded a penalty that was calmly slotted away by Sam Bradshaw.
Thornton came out firing in the second half though and Patrick Wand doubled Thornton’s lead after scoring an incredible free kick that landed squarely in the top right corner.
Despite being beaten multiple times already in the match, Wallsend’s goalkeeper Joel Magnee showed his class making some great saves to keep Thornton at bay, but the Redbacks would be too hard to stop, and two goals to Jake Millstead and an impressive strike from Trent Partridge would seal a decisive victory and deal Wallsend their first back-to-back loss this season.
Thornton’s coach Gary Wand said the result and performance was the perfect reply to losing their first match last weekend and praised his side for their ability to adapt to changes.
“You can’t for any more than what happened today,” Wand said.
“We changed a few things going forward, but we just had to play like a team that’s one of the best sides in the comp, which we did.”
“When you win 6-1, you haven’t really got a bad player.”