THE Swan Hill men’s soccer team have climbed to second on the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League Division 2 ladder following a hard-fought 3-2 win over Border Raiders FC on Sunday afternoon.
After captain Cooper Fox opened the scoring in the 20th minute, the Swans were forced to come from behind after the Raiders scored two goals in quick succession to take a 2-1 lead mid-way through the first half.
The home side’s advantage lasted just three minutes however as Liam Baldwin scored his first goal to bring the two clubs back level in the 35th minute.
The match winning moment came in the shadows of the half time whistle however, with Swan Hill striker Conner Brown finding the back of the net to give the Swans a one-goal lead at the main break.
It was a lead Swan Hill would maintain for the entire second half, with both teams battling out an entertaining and at times physical match.
Both clubs would register yellow cards, with Swan Hill picking up three in the second half to Baldwin, Fox and Karl Fedele.
It was a much tougher afternoon on Sunday for Swan Hill’s women’s team, who went down 7-0 on the road to ladder leaders Kyneton District Maroon.
Missing several key players, including Heidi Annand, Sarah Feltrin and Judaya Majur, the Swans proved no match for the Rangers, who piled on four first half goals, before adding a further three in the second half.
Despite the end result, Swan Hill assistant coach Emma Pitts said there were still plenty of positives to be gained from the loss.
“It certainly wasn’t the end result we wanted, but I think the final margin flattered them (Kyneton),” Pitts said.
“By no means is a seven goal defeat a true reflection on the game from our perspective and while they were without doubt the better team, our girls fought hard and competed with them for large periods of the match.
“We made a few changes to our team which affected the stability of our back four and we knew going into the game that would probably happen, but they were changes that we wanted to make with a view to developing some of the girls in roles that are a bit less familiar to them.”
Centre back Abbey Houlihan was one of those changes, with the defender playing forward alongside Trinity Shelton and Kayla Chrisp in an encouraging performance.
Ruby Smith and Zyma Aslam were also tried in defence and showed promise according to Pitts.
“The girls worked hard and never gave up despite what the scoreboard says,” Pitts said.
“There are a few areas of our game we need to improve and we just have to get better at against the better teams like them (Kyneton) and Castlemaine with our ability to hold our ground in the contest among them.
“We allowed them possession far too easily at times, but our endeavour was there and our fight was there, the girls never gave up but we just needed to be physically present and in for the fight a little bit more.”
Swan Hill’s junior boys teams had no such problems in continuing their winning streaks however, with both the under 14 boys and under 16 boys teams recording wins at the Ken Harrison Reserve on Saturday.
The Swans under 14 boys proved to be the biggest winners with a 7-3 victory over Epsom Scorpions with Alexander Morpeth scoring a double for the Swans and Rylan Muir-Howie, Elijah Swartz, Jesse Crooymans, Zeke Simmons and James Mcgovern also finding the back of the net.
Swan Hill’s under 16s side extended their winning streak to five with a 2-0 win over Golden City SC, with Oliver Miliado and Arou Majur the goal scorers for the Swans.
Swan Hill’s under 16s team will face Epsom Scorpions this Saturday at the Ken Harrison Reserve, with the two teams playing out a 1-1 draw earlier in the season.
