ROUND 3 – Sun 25th
April’10 (Tom Flood Reserve, Bendigo)
Match Report: FERNWOOD VIPERS vs South Melbourne
Cool but sunny conditions greeted a good crowd for the Vipers WPL R3
home matches that had been moved to the Tom Flood Reserve in Bendigo. The two Vipers’
matches were being played as curtain-raisers for the Anzac Day gala featuring
the Victorian Mens Premier League clash between Green
Gully and Sunshine George-Cross. Although not quite as polished as last
weekend, the Vipers have pulled off a great double with wins in both the
reserves and firsts over WPL visitors South Melbourne.
Reserves
The Vipers Reserves got the day off to a good start with a convincing
3-1 win in their 11am kickoff game. A shortage of squad numbers again forced
the inclusion of a number of firsts team members as interchange players for the
reserves game, but the benefit of their presence has certainly helping lift the
Vipers reserves team’s performance to new levels. An excellent build-up down
the right wing almost from the kickoff saw an early chance to Jacinta D, and it
was not long before the mounting pressure on the visitors’ goal lead to a
free-kick about 30m out, which Paige C skillfully placed into the roof of the
net.
A composed back three, with Kristen between fullbacks Louise and Tayla
M, was giving goal-keeper Sarah W-O little to do, while a midfield line-up of Tegan, Jackii L, Jackie P and
Rebecca were on top and helping launch several attacking moves. Unfortunately a
lack of close pressure on the edge of the penalty area midway through the half
allowed a Sth Melbourne forward to loop a shot over
Sarah in goal. But the Vipers responded brilliantly to the equalizer direct
from the kickoff with Brittany putting Sarah R through who comfortably slotted
the ball into the visitors net to regain the Vipers lead.
The 2nd half started with the Vipers 2-1 ahead, and again
dominating the play, though with occasional lapses in concentration and
pressure. GK Sarah was always alert though and pulled off a couple of terrific
saves to frustrate the visitors on their few scoring opportunities. With Brittany,
Jacinta and Tayla E now holding strong at the back, the Vipers passing movement
began to lift, leading to some sustained attacking play, with Louise and Jackie
P causing lots of problems for the Sth Melbourne defence. When a shot from Louise was saved by the GK after a
great through-ball, an alert Jackii L following up hit
a pin-point shot from the edge of the penalty are to give the Vipers a 3-1 lead
which they held until the final whistle.
Firsts
Although the Vipers firsts team dominated
possession in the early minutes of their 1pm game, their build-up play was frustrated
by a very crowded South Melbourne defence and central
midfield. This lead to some impatience from some of the young Vipers players,
trying to go forward even when there was no space, prompting a number of
unnecessary turnovers and some increasing frustration. With Catey
and Matilda in central midfield in front of Alex, Sarah R and Ilona at the back,
the visitors were posing absolutely no threat on Kristen in goal,
except for one disgraceful challenge when a South Melbourne forward chasing a
through-ball made no attempt avoid Kristen who had already collected the ball.
For reasons known only to the referee, the offending player was not even
cautioned, but fortunately Ten is made of stern stuff
and did not let the incident rattle her.
While the visitors scoring opportunities were limited to occasional hopeful
shots from distance, the Vipers began to show a bit more patience in their attacking
build-ups, moving the ball around with more creativity, finding gaps in the
South Melbourne defence and winning a series of
corners. Midway through the 1st half, the ref awarded a rare free-kick
to the Vipers in a central attacking position, which Sarah R stepped up to take.
With everyone expecting a pass
aiming to capitalize on Maika’s strength in the air, Sarah instead fired a direct
shot from 30m into the top corner of the net giving the visitors’ GK no chance.
Unfortunately an ankle injury to Emily L just before half-time curtailed her
promising involvement in the game and soured an otherwise good end to the first
half.
Jacinta came on to replace Emily in the 2nd half, with Maika
dropping back to centre-back and Sarah R moving forward. The Vipers again
dominated possession throughout the half, but again lacked patience at times, trying
to go forward through a crowd and giving the visitors a chance to win the ball back,
when support from team-mates in space behind the ball was readily available. As
a result the game was unnecessarily scrappy, not helped by a disappointingly inconsistent
refereeing performance, allowing many blatant fouls to go unpunished while
blowing the whistle for other innocuous incidents. During
the middle and latter stages of the 2nd half, Brittany, Tayla E and Jackii L came on for Paige, Michelle and Rachael (who were
all tiring, having helped out in the reserves game), further consolidating the
Vipers’ control of the play. Despite some good attacking moves, including a
series of corners and one or two free-kicks within range, and one excellent
chance to Brittany after a great pass from Sarah, the Vipers were not able to
add to the score.
While not quite reaching the heights of the previous week, the young
squad again put together some excellent moments during this game, and
absolutely dominated defensively giving Kristen little to do all day. However, at
times impatience to rush the ball forward, and several moments where players
opted for individual rather than team play, gave away possession and undermined
what could have been a much more convincing result – if we learn from this, the
Vipers can clearly raise the bar even higher still.
These two wins should see the Vipers firsts and reserves move up to 5th
and 4th places on their respective ladders, a great effort at this early stage
of the season.
A special thank you to all the Vipers players, family members and
supporters who helped out with the fund-raising efforts throughout the Anzac
Day gala.
Report from Peter Richardson, Head Coach