THE Swan Hill women’s soccer team have fallen agonisingly short of securing points from three consecutive games for the first time in almost a decade, suffering a 1-0 loss to the Border Raiders at Ken Harrison Reserve on Sunday afternoon.
Having won their past two matches against Epsom Stingers and La Trobe University, the Swans took the game up to the ladder leaders and reigning premiers at home, with the deciding moment coming from a penalty in the 65th minute of the match.
It continues a remarkable turnaround from Swan Hill’s women’s side, who after going winless through the first eight rounds of the season now sit seventh on the ladder with a three-win, seven-loss record, with the 1-0 loss on Sunday coming just six weeks after the Swans suffered a 12-0 defeat to the same side.
While disappointed to not walk away with what would have been a well-deserved draw, women’s captain Sarah Scott was full of praise for how her team had responded over the past month of the season.
“It (Sunday’s game) was without doubt our best game of the season even though we didn’t get the end result we would have liked,” Scott said.
“To turn around a 12-0 loss six weeks ago to lose by just one goal is an absolute credit to every one of our girls.
“We’ve got a really close, tight-knit group that is starting to really gel together and play some pretty good football.
“We were really poor when we played them six weeks ago and we had a bit of a point to prove this time and I think we’ve done that, but the biggest positive is that we’ve proven to ourselves that we can match it with the best teams for the full 90 minutes.”
Scott herself was among the Swans’ better players, with the goalkeeper making several vital saves to keep the ladder leaders from either taking or extending their lead.
Along with Scott, the Swans were also well served by centre backs Amity Scott and Abbey Houlihan, with Kim Patterson another key contributor in a performance that was described by Scott as a “full squad effort”.
“Everyone played their role and did their job – there were no passengers,” Scott said.
“It was one of those games that we all walked away from knowing we gave it everything we had.
“They (Border Raiders) are a very physical team and we knew that we needed to match them in that area and we did.
“The girls in the back four and our midfielders worked so hard to close down the space any time they got the ball – I think that was a major difference between this game and they last time we played them.”
Swan Hill’s youth boys’ team were also in action at Ken Harrison Reserve on Sunday, with the Swans suffering their second painful one-goal loss for the day with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of FC Eaglehawk.
Chasing their first win of the season, Swan Hill scored through Tom Clarke in the first half, with the two teams locked together at 1-1 after a tense first half.
Sensing the chance to secure their first points of the season, the Swans pressed hard in the second half, only to see Eaglehawk score through Cody Jaques before holding on to record a 2-1 win.
Swan Hill’s only win for the weekend came via the club’s under-16 girls’ team, who defeated Kyneton District SC 2-1 on the road.
Ella Semeia scored a brace for the Swans either side of half-time, with Swan Hill holding a 2-0 lead until the final three minutes, when Charlotte Anaba scored the Rangers’ first goal to breathe life into the dying minutes of the match.
Swan Hill responded, however, controlling the play over the final moments to hold on to record their fourth win of the season and take another big step towards locking away the team’s first finals appearance since their inception at the beginning of last season.
The final match of the weekend saw Swan Hill’s under-16 boys’ team travel to Castlemaine, with the Swans suffering a 5-0 loss to the home side.
After trailing by just one goal at half-time the Swans pressed hard to find the equaliser early in the second half, with several shots just failing to find the target, before Castlemaine’s second goal with 15 minutes remaining in the match saw the floodgates open, allowing the home to finish with a flurry of goals over the final 10 minutes.
The senior men’s team recorded a 3-0 win over La Trobe University Black when they forfeited to the Swans.
