UOWFC started off the 2014 season in style with 7 points against Kemblawarra in round 1.

YOUTH GRADE 2-2 DRAW: A new look youth grade side started off the day with some fresh faces wanting to make a good impression for coaches Luke Vandenburgh and Jesse Howard. Despite going down 0-1 to an early goal the youthies came together in the second half and came away with a solid 2-2 draw and a good away point in the first round, particularly off the back of a pure class goal from range by Chris Arnold. There is a lot of room for improvement in this squad and big things are expected of them for this year! Unfortunately new face Jonathon Goodacre suffered a serious knee injury right at the end of the game and the club wishes him a speedy recovery.

Team captain Matt Shannon proved again why he is a vital part of the midfield engine and was the run away man of the match from players and coaches alike.

RESERVE GRADE 2-0 WIN: Reserve  grade also had a few new faces on board and with starting spots at a premium everyone was out to impress. Nick Ridley and Ricky ‘the man’ Martinez were running riot up front, and captain Tom Shannon was marshalling the rear of midfield well. Even el Presidente got in on the act with a return to running around on the field as sweeper. Overall it was a dominate 2-0 win first up and a clean sheet for new reserve grade goalkeeper Nathan Williams. Again room for improvement as the season progresses but player/coach Brendon Fotheringham must have been happy with the effort, touch and control of the ball at this stage of the season. Man of the match for his two winning goals was Nick Ridley with lots of other good performances across the field.

FIRST GRADE 3-1 WIN: And then the main event of the afternoon kicked off. Lots of familiar faces took the park for UOWFC and there was also some new blood to strengthen the team. Straight away there was a difference with the front line of Scott Muilwyk, Marc Lee and Tobias Williams looking very dangerous and threatening to score every time they went forward. Sure enough UOWFC capitalised early and Toby scored a great goal to put UOWFC 1-0 up.

It didn’t take long for the lead to double with club and first grade captain Scott Muilvyk scoring the first of his two goals to put UOWFC up 2-0. There should have been a few more goals scored but the ‘early season touch’ of several players let them down.

Kemblawarra kept fighting and were able to claw one back before half time but UOWFC still looked in control and ready to score more goals. Tobias Williams showed great restraint to not retaliate when a Kemblawarra defender started throwing punches, meaning that he stayed on the pitch and the Kemblawarra defender had a long walk to an early shower…which Toby got a yellow card for mentioning to him in passing.

Scott Muilvyk scored a second with a classy finish over the keeper and UOWFC could have had a few more before the game finished 3-1.

There wasn’t a bad player on the park and players such as Peter Dohnt and Marc Lee had great games, as did new faces Mitch Preston and Ross Graham. Goalkeeper Liam Stevenson made some important saves in the second half as well. Ultimately however the player of the match went to Liam Engel for a huge work rate and overall top performance.

Coach David Watts was pleased with the intensity and effort, and while the retention of the ball can be improved it was a great day out for UOWFC in round one. Bring on Wests next week!