2009 ROUND 4

Western Eagles vs LUSC Women 0-2

Goals:

Pettit , Tory (1)
Schmidt , Tina (1)

Goals Assists:

Veltri, Kami (1)

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Depleted Latrobe Side Snatches Crucial Away Win

A vastly depleted La Trobe Uni Womens team travelled away in the fourth round and faced Western Eagles, a strong, well established side in what was a scrappy affair, but managed to walk away with the three points. Having to face the Eagles away from home, especially with their incredible win record, was always going to be a difficult task.

It was made all that more difficult when Captain Melanie Meehan had to be taken to hospital, Emily Ryan and Natalie Irwin both pulled out at the eleventh hour due to illness and Lisa Doyle succumbed to her groin injury. Centre forward Nikki Garner was still out due to a muscle strain, whereas Nicole Mills and Tina Schmidt were both nursing bruised ribs coming into this game. Added to that there was once again an absence of a FFV referee. Coach Victor Sekulov had to rearrange the squad minutes before kickoff and introduced Melissa Lum, Reserve Keeper, onto the field for what was a daunting experience for her. Nevertheless to her credit Melissa performed well and helped the team significantly.

The game kicked off and slowly settled into a scrappy affair as neither side held onto the ball. Latrobe were playing it safe and defended well. With an untried defence, coupled with the fact that Marte Ur Lovaas was struggling to stay on the field, Latrobe could not play their normal defensive play and so resorted to clearing the ball out.

Western Eagles were beginning to take control of the game and applied pressure but all their efforts were stopped by Beccie Ambrose, with Marte there to clear the danger if they got past Beccie. Still the Eagles attacked and tried to work their way along the wings. Melissa rode in some tackles and cleared the ball, giving the defence some respite and on the other side Jenna Carson was frantically defending as well.

The Latrobe midfield was not making their presence felt as most of the possession was with Western Eagles. However for all their possession the Eagles did not have a clear shot on goal. They obtained a couple of corners but Beccie was equal to the challenge and dealt with the threat.

A clearance by Marte beat the defence and Tina Schmidt ran onto it but her effort was smothered by the desperate Eagles defence. The opportunity was lost but it was a warning to the Eagles. A warning they did not heed. Within 15 minutes Latrobe hit the front! Tory Pettit got onto the ball after some good passing moves by Latrobe and some excellent work from Beccie and struck a well taken shot wide of the Western Eagles keeper. It was 1-0 to Latrobe despite them being under considerable pressure. A great way to respond.

With that goal Latrobe gained confidence and began to resort back to their normal style of play. The difficult pitch made the ball bounce uncontrollably but now it was Latrobe who were applying the pressure and managing to deal with the bounce better. Justine Marum was chasing every defence move and harassing the Eagles defenders, forcing them to hastily release the ball, only for Rosie Holgate to collect it and threaten the Eagles goal.

In an instant the Latrobe attack was extinguished. Tory received the ball just outside the penalty and cleverly turned her opponent. The Eagles player kicked at Tory, bringing her down. No free kick was awarded and it resulted in an ankle injury to Tory. After a few minutes of treatment Tory hobbled off. Victor Sekulov had to restructure his formation to deal with being a player down and the Eagles regained the ascendency.

Nicole Mills was now the central midfielder and played well to disrupt some of the attacking moves of the Eagles. Despite her obvious pain Nicole kept on her feet and tackled hard, forcing the Eagles to try and find gaps in other parts of the field. Latrobe again defended desperately with a player down and to their credit kept the Eagles attack at bay.

After a seven minute break Tory came back onto the field and the odds were evened out and Latrobe regained control of the game. Nicole won the ball in the middle and played it onto Justine, who turned and tried to play Tina through. The pass was unfortunately not a strong one and this attack fizzled.

Kami Veltri, who up to this point in the game was a quiet witness and totally out of it, suddenly sprang to life. Her first effort to get past the defence was blocked but she kept battling away. Gaining a succession of throw ins Latrobe moved the ball down the field and Kami was toying with the Eagle defenders. Another throw in and Kami beat her opponent and quickly crossed the ball into the middle. A brilliant first time shot on the turn by Tina Schmidt left the Western Eagles keeper stranded. It was 2-0 to Latrobe. The Western Eagles coach after the game commented “...that second goal was brilliant. Premier League stuff. We couldn’t do anything about it”.

Being 2-0 up Latrobe were now playing the passing game and Western Eagles were playing chase. Once again Latrobe moved the ball down the line with successive throw ins and Kami threw the ball to Tina who quickly crossed it in. The ball beat all the Eagle defenders and it came to Rosie, clear and unmarked. Her shot went wide of the open goal. The chance to be 3-0 up was gone.

But then the highly contentious decisions began to be made by the home referee. Free kicks were being awarded to the home side with alarming frequency. A number of hand balls against Western Eagles were waived away by the referee but similar were being awarded against Latrobe. A free kick outside the Latrobe penalty box was fiercely debated by the Latrobe players, but to no avail. The free went well wide.

The last minutes of the first half levelled into a pattern of play with both sides cancelling each other out. The injuries were beginning to tell on the Latrobe players and they were glad for the break.

Latrobe came out in the second half with strict instructions; conserve energy. Justine cleverly chased every ball and managed to unsettle the Eagle defenders, which enabled the midfield to position themselves and hold onto the ball and play it around. Tory and Nicole were defending well and both Beccie and Marte were combining to hold off any threats.

Latrobe were awarded one free kick for the whole 90 minutes, and that was early on in the game when it was 0-0. By contrast Western Eagles were awarded 39 free kicks! This travesty will continue to plague the FFV Division 2 competition unless the FFV ensures referees are appointed to officiate these games.

Nicole was struggling now, holding onto her ribs as she ran. Justine had not fully recovered from the winding she got earlier but she kept on chasing her opponents. Victor pulled Tory back to help the defence and Latrobe closed shop. Western Eagles had two shots at goal, which Hannah Matthew-Prosser moved well to collect. She was required to do little else as the Latrobe defensive play kept out the Western Eagle attacks.

The game ended with no change to the score but a huge sigh of relief for the players. They had survived and scored a win on a poor ground with biased refereeing and with half the team carrying injuries.

Latrobe Uni acting Captain Beccie Ambrose said “The odds were against us from the start of the game: no referee, bad pitch and the minimum eleven players to make the team. Despite all this, we still pulled together as a team and played some good football to score two goals in the first half. The support from everyone on the team was great, even when some very dubious decisions were made against us. It was a great win under not so good conditions. Special mention to Melissa who stepped up to play her first game out of the goal box.”

Tory Pettit added “It was one of the best wins I have ever played in. Everything was against us. They are a good side and when you weigh up everything they should have won. BUT, we really stuck together and played as a team and showed that even though things weren’t going our way we had the determination and character to overcome all that.

We were the walking wounded. Looking around at the girls we had on the pitch, you could tell that a few were in a lot of pain but they just kept running and working hard. It was such a gutsy win and I am proud of all the girls and our performance. It was an extremely satisfying result.”

Coach Victor Sekulov said “To be successful one tries to instil a sense of team and comradeship. I am amazed how strong that is here with all the players. There is no doubt that it was this persona throughout the team and our clever defensive tactics that enabled us to win on the weekend, despite the injuries and missing players.

It was a scrappy game and definitely not one of our best performances. But considering the situation we were in, the loss of players, the injuries, debatable decisions the girls pulled together in outstanding fashion. If we keep this philosophy throughout the season we shall do well.”

Next week’s game is against North Geelong at home. North Geelong have not lost a game so far this season so they will be an interesting challenge for Latrobe. Victor Sekulov commenting on the game said “We still have a number of players carrying injuries but are quietly confident that we can do well on Sunday.”