THE Swan Hill men’s soccer team will be aiming to continue their unbeaten start to the season when they meet Golden City White at Shadforth Park in Bendigo on Sunday.
The Swans sit five points clear on top of the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League Division 2 ladder, having won all six home and away games this season, and will go into Sunday’s match as red-hot favourites following a 13-1 win over the Deniliquin Wanderers at the last outing.
Striker Conner Brown was the chief destroyer on that occasion, with the Division 2 leading goalscorer adding four goals to take his season tally to 12 goals and four clear of his captain Cooper Fox, who has scored eight.
Golden City are expected to pose a much sterner test, however, especially at Shadforth Park, where the Rams are yet to taste defeat this season.
While Brown and Fox have been in good form up front, it’s been the consistency of midfielders Jason Stokes, Stephen Whittaker and Gareth Johansen that has seemingly taken Swan Hill to another level this season.
Also in action at Shadforth Park over the weekend will be Swan Hill’s under-16 girls team, who will face off against Golden City SC following the two teams’ draw six weeks ago at Moama, when a very late Golden City goal forced the Swans to share the points in a 3-3 draw.
Swan Hill striker Trinity Shelton scored all three of her side’s goals.
Swan Hill’s youth and under-16 boys, will also be in action in Bendigo on Saturday, along with the club’s women’s team.
The youth boys chasing their first win of the season against Spring Gully White at Stanley Avenue, while the under-16 boys will also be looking for their first points of the season against FC Eaglehawk at Truscott Reserve.
The women’s team will begin the second half of their season against La Trobe University SC, with whom Swan Hill lost 7-0 in the opening round of the season.
While the Swans may have been outclassed on that occasion, women’s captain Sarah Scott told The Guardian she was expecting a much-improved performance from her team.
“We’ve come a long way as a team since that first game, we’re a much better and vastly different team to the side that ran out in that game in round 1,” Scott said.
“That was our first match for the season as we hadn’t played any practice matches and I think our more recent results are a much better reflection on where we sit as a team.
“It’s a whole new season for us now, we’re pretty keen to show how far we’ve come as a team over these next few weeks as we start playing the return games against the sides we played first up.
“We just want to keep improving each week and moving forward as a team and if we do that, the results will take care of themselves.”
