Despite the Young Lions Soccer Club’s senior divisions not recording a win on the weekend, captains of both teams were content with the outcomes.
First Grade captain-coach Calum McCaffery looked for an improvement in team morale ahead of Round 13, something the Lions achieved as they came up against a strong South Wagga outfit.
According to McCaffery the Lions started slowly and allowed Wagga to get the upper hand. Young recovered from an early goal but the visitors proved to be the stronger side and ran out winners, 4-1.
While the outcome wasn’t idea, McCaffery was quick to point out the positives.
“I was happier with the performance, it was much better than last week but there were still silly, basic mistakes which cost us,” he said.
“That’s where their first couple of goals came from which was a bit disappointing, but the boys didn’t let their heads drop, even when we conceded a couple of early goals.”
In a standout of the day for Young, teenager Theo Burns scored a goal 60 minutes into the game.
“It was his first senior goal,” McCaffery said.
“He was first to react when the ball fell in the box, he hit it and put it in the top right – it was probably six or seven yards out, the keeper didn’t really have a chance.”
The Lions now have their sights set on the Pascoe Plate as they sneak into the bottom half of the competition qualifiers.
“We’re still a chance to qualify for the Plate, but for definite we need to beat Tumut and the Nomads and pick up a couple of points along the way,” McCaffery said. “It’s possible.”
In the women’s division the Lions went down to the Junee Jaguars in a much improved result compared to the outcome of their last encounter.
The Jaguars were confined to a 2-nil victory on Sunday – six points less than their last win over Young – which is a clear indication of Young’s improvement throughout the competition.
Lions captain Patricia Dawe said the game was much the same as the last time the two teams played in that Junee took an early lead to head into half time 1-nil.
“The only difference was they put seven more goals on us in the previous game,” Dawe said.
“As we’re progressing throughout the season we’re playing more as a team, our fitness and our skills are improving, and our defence definitely played a huge role in keeping the goals against us down.”
Players player went to Tammi Brewer who played a key role in defence and continuously shut down Junee’s attack. Coaches award went to goalkeeper Lisa Bradley.
