The mighty women’s first team played at Anderson Park on a chilly Sunday morning when most reasonable people were sensibly nursing their hangovers from the night before. Admittedly, an early kick off does have some advantages…and their rewards were reaped all afternoon at the Southern Cross. Anyhow, onto the football. 

This was a near top of the table clash, we were currently sitting at third and Varsity were getting too big for their boots at two. Our cunning, yet quite possibly obvious plan was to thrash them and continue on our journey to our rightful position at the top of the table. We knew that had only one possible edge, they were fit…but what our team lacks in fitness we make up for with raw meat and commitment, and an abundance of extremely talented footballers. And it was as a result of this talent that we quickly asserted our dominance on the game and created a multitude of chances early on. It appeared their goalkeeper had greased her gloves with butter either that or she just couldn’t catch very well and it was with much groaning an moaning that we watched chance after chance somehow keep itself out the back of the net. Twice the ball was cleared by a defender off the goal line, Cookie did her best to break the crossbar, and old slippery fingers in goal somehow managed to keep her mitts on the ball. In stark contrast, Varsity created very little, however the one break away they did stage very nearly cost dearly as the slightly square back four watched in horror the ball dribble its way right passed the goal mouth. Luckily there were no Varsity players on hand to tap it in. All the pressure BNU were exerting was bound to take its toll eventually and sure enough with about thirty seconds to play in the first half we were rewarded with a goal.

The talk at half time was positive, we had these guys on the ropes…we knew it…they knew it…all we had to do was turn those ropes into a noose and Varsity would be history. After a brief patch of play where we seemed to have forgotten that passing the ball to players in the same colour shirt as you is a good thing, we got ourselves back on track and ‘Anya’ thundered the ball into the back of the net for her second goal. The keeper was just glad she was nowhere near it and managed to keep all parts of her body attached. It was a slippery slide for Varsity from here on in, they rarely threatened, and when the ball did enter our half it was quickly and deftly dispatched back up field…failing that the odd ‘no compromise’ slide tackle seemed to keep the attacks at bay. We were starting to get into our stride now and the football was a pleasure to watch as a result. Varsity heads were down, and not wanting to make things any easier for them we scored two more crackers. Mel smacked an absolute beaut from the left edge of the 18 yard box into the top right hand corner, and then Jillian capped it all off with another pearler from at least 40 metres out.

Four – nil was a satisfying result, and even more satisfying was the standard of some of the football played. The first team (and anyone else for that matter) are more than welcome to come to Wakefield next Sunday and see how its all done…

This report was proudly bought to you by Karen O’Leary.