District league Round 3 vs. Corrimal Rangers (Friday night and Saturday):

The District League squads hit out against Corrimal in Round 3, with both clubs having a double header against fresh Premier League squads on the Sunday as well. As a result Youth grade and First grade played under lights on Friday night, and Reserve grade at the usual time on Saturday afternoon.

YOUTH GRADE – LOST 5-0: The youth grade squad were out to get their season on track after a couple of disappointing results in the first two rounds, however this wasn’t the night for it. The boys came up against a red hot Corrimal side first up on Friday and were a little shell-shocked by the setting sun and playing under lights.

Corrimal ran in a couple of quick goals and quickly got in front 2-0. It didn’t take long for a cracking third goal to fly into the top corner of the net and the youthies heads were well and truly down. The boy had a much improved second half however couldn’t stop the scoreline from ultimately ending up 5-0. Man of the match was Thomas Langfield for an impressive effort and high workload in the middle of the park.

RESERVE GRADE – WON 5-0: Reserve grade were equal top of the table after the first two rounds and were up against another undefeated side in Corrimal. Some last minute injuries meant a reshuffle with el Presidente going back in goals and the backline therefore changing slightly. Despite the best efforts of an under the weather el Presidente in trying to gift a goal to Corrimal the score remained 0-0 early on, however the RGM machine slowly began to assert its dominance on the game and were starting to look threatening. It wasn’t too much longer before the boys had a few in the back of the net and from that point on they were always going to run away with it.

Grant Newman got off a nudie run nice and early in the year with a cross/shot from wide on the right that turned back the history books. George Franco chimed in with a good solo effort in the box and Matt Baker grabbed another one late on to end it at 5-0. Matt Baker was the man of the match for a dominating display in a back four that wasn’t really troubled all game.

FIRST GRADE – DREW 0-0: First grade played after the youthies on friday night and like ressies were up the pointy end of the table and playing another undefeated team. Big things were expected of the Corrimal squad this year, at least if you were reading the Football South Coast and associated reviews which wrote off UOWFC and predicted a 2-0 scoreline to Corrimal. Somebody didn’t tell the uni boys that however and they took the game to Corrimal. Both teams had some good chances with goal keeper Liam Stevenson having a great game and making several important saves under the lights of Corrimal. The second half was a mirror of the first with both teams having some chances and Corrimal pushing hard late on. Youth graders Tom Burke and Thomas Langfield both came on in the second half to inject some late energy and ultimately the 0-0 result was fair for both teams. Man of the match was Liam Stevenson for his solid goalkeeping effort.

Bert Bampton Cup vs. Tarrawanna (Sunday):

YOUTH GRADE – LOST 4-1: The cup games on the following Sunday meant that both youth grade and first grade had to back up against strong Premier league squads from Tarrawanna who only had the cup games that weekend and were always going to be fresh. The Youthies started out well against the Tarrawanna youth side and were more than holding their own for the first 20 minutes. However tired legs soon showed through and ultimately Tarra were too strong and ran away with the game 4-1.

FIRST GRADE – LOST 8-1: First grade ended up with a blow out score line but it certainly wasn’t the case for the first 55 minutes of the game. UOWFC came out of the blocks strongly and didn’t show any initial hindrance from their tough game against Corrimal earlier in the weekend. El Presidente was back in goals again and made some important early saves, and UOWFC opened the scoring first with Jesse Howard slotting a great left foot shot into the corner past the giant Tarra keeper. UOWFC had several other good chances as well and possible could have gone another goal or two up. Tarra were looking good for some goals too and equalled with a deft touch into the corner from a cross. 1-1 would have been a fair halftime score but unfortunately at the stroke of half time the Tarra striker got on the end of a great ball from midfield and slotted it to make it 2-1 to Tarra at the change of ends.

UOWFC were forced to make some first half substitutions losing important players in Tobias Williams and Jesse Howard to injury. However UOWFC almost equalised right from the kick off with the one-on-one chance flashing past the post. UOWFC held out Tarra for another 5-10 minutes before the Tarra left winger whipped down their left hand side and drove a strong shot through el Presidente in goals. UOWFC were down 3-1 and still looking ok, however an own goal soon after meant it was now 4-1 and that was that. From this point on most players had given up the game and started thinking about how sore their legs were from the previous days. Tarra ran away with the game from this point and could have scored any number of goals. Ultimately it ended up 8-1 however this score only represented the last half an hour, not the rest of the game. The boys can now concentrate on the District league and accumulating vital early season points as especially First grade and Reserve grade are looking good to give the league title a red hot run.