On Saturday, the Casper’s opposition were East Armidale. The team was unsure on how they would perform as we had some vital players missing and with a lot of players away, this meant that some of our first grade players had already played in second grade. Some second grade players who just played 90minutes of soccer, then had to back up and play another 90minutes of first grade soccer. So, Guyra United started the game well with the first 15 minutes of play seeing some great passages of play and some great defence.
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However, 15 minutes was all that was needed for the fatigued few to start to tire allowing East Armidale to score an easy goal about 20 minutes into the match. Another goal came shortly after off a corner to which an Easts attacker had no pressure on him and easily hit the ball in. The opposition seemed to have all of the possession and Guyra were just ball chasing. We played well in patches and managed to scare the Easts backline a few times, but the first half just seemed to be all East Armidale and Guyra walked off being 2-0 down.
We talked about the positive things at half time, just to keep our heads up. We also spoke about going out and not getting run down and embarrassed by the East side but to stick it to them. As the second half kicked off, East Armidale had all the possession again. Guyra defended a bit better at the start of this half. Easts had many opportunities to score off headers, including three corners in a row with Guyra defending the first two brilliantly. But if you keep giving a side opportunities they are going to eventually score and this is what happened as third time was the lucky time for East Armidale who scored leaving Guyra 3-0 down.
Easts continued to push at Guyra. A great counter attack saw Corby Kliendienst give a great ball through to Darcy Jackson who looked like running away, until an Easts defender swooped in and managed to force the mistake from Darcy. With 15 minutes to go fatigue definitely set in. Especially in our defence as three of our four backs who were playing had already played in second grade. This definitely showed as two more goals were added to Easts tally. That left the final score at 5-0.
Best on field was Steve Kliendienst who worked extremely hard in defence and held the backs together. We took the positives from this game and left the rest behind. We knew this was not how we could play. Hopefully a good training session with our full squad and a full side next Saturday will see a cleaner and crisper performance from Guyra.
It was great to see second grade players have the opportunity to play in first grade which will help a lot with experience. Thank you to everyone who did play two games. It shows how committed we are as a club and it’s great to see players offering themselves to play back to back games. Don’t forget that Guyra United Soccer Club have their Retro Night on August 16 with the theme being ‘Fright Night’ and we also have our Golf Ambrose day this coming Sunday kicking off at 10am! This weekend we take on Gunnedah at home. See you there!
Tyrone Clough
Seconds miss key players
Once again Guyra Seconds took to the field with a number of key players missing due to State cross country duties. This is a high achievement in itself (well done to those boys and girls that competed) and with a few players helping out from first grade it was always going to be a big ask against a pretty red hot Easts side.
Guyra started the game well handling everything Easts threw at them with some solid defence but with limited ball. Something had to give and Guyra faulted letting Easts run in two quick goals. Easts then went on to score two more before the break.
Guyra went out in the 2nd half with the mindset of containing the Easts attack making them work for everything but with some mix ups in the Guyra defence due to some fatigue and new combo’s Easts run in a few more goals.
Guyra tried their hardest and with most players normally getting a break they played the full 90 minutes which took its toll. All in all is wasn’t a bad effort and for the record players absent (Adam B, Mason H, Brodie H, Logan S, Vinnie and Ashley H) who are all form players.
So good effort boys - the team just needs to learn that constructive talk and organisation on the field plays a big part of the game. A big thank you to Ash and Tyrone who helped out, also Eunice who made the early trip back from Newcastle so the side wasn’t left short.
Points 3 - Sugar Rae, 2 - Sid Bull, 1 - Rest of Side
Next week home game against Gunnedah all welcome. Don’t forget golf ambrose this Sunday.
Col Stanley