12.09.10 - United Youngsters push Champions all the way
Division 1 Metro Top 4 Semi Final - Beale Park, Spearwood , Sept 12th 2010
Mandurah City 6 v Swan United 3
This game saw Swan United looking for their first win over Mandurah this season and hoping to cause an upset over the newly crowned Division 1 Champions in the Top 4 semi-final clash. Straight from the kick off Mandurah had the majority of the possession and had several early shots on the Swans goal and were determined to maintain a huge amount of pressure. The Swans defence finally caved in when one of the Mandurah strikers broke clear and finished well finally getting one past Keeper Daniel D’Angelo.
Swans finally started to get into the game and finally had a goal back from a penalty after Sam Humphreys weaved his way into the box and was brought down. Hayden Atterton was given the job of penalty taker and slotted the ball home with a confident strike. Before the penalty it appeared Swan had scored through Tiahna Scandrett when it appeared she had forced the ball over the goal line and for the second time in as many games against Mandurah the goal was not given.1-1 and more goals to come in the first half with Mandurah having some good chances either saved by the inform Swans keeper or defenders launching themselves at the ball to block shots and the goalposts saved Swan on one or two occasions before Mandurah got another to make it 2-1. The Swans underdog spirit and never say die attitude came to the fore once more when the Swans had a throw in on the left side of the pitch taken by our long throw expert Tiahna Scandrett who hurled the ball deep into the Mandurah box and fell into the path of Joel Green who slotted the ball home to make it 2-2.
Soon after this goal Swans enjoy some good ball possession as Mandurah seemed to sit back for 5 minutes but Swan could not turn the pressure into any decent attempts on goal. This came back to haunt us as Mandurah got a breakthrough and made it 3-2. Within a couple of minutes more Swans pressure saw the ball ping pong around the edge of the Mandurah box and up stepped Dlyan Cochrane to score an absolute screamer into the top corner and past the tall Mandurah keeper to make it 3-3.
After half time Swan had a clear chance to make it 4-3 but Swans striker and leading goal scorer Gino Hampshire was one on one with the keeper but elected to pass to Anthony Finis whose shot was saved by the keeper. After this Mandurah stepped up a gear with the tall striker O’Brien running across the forward line at will and picking up a couple more goals as the Swans heads appeared to drop. Mandurah got another from a corner where the tall centre half for Mandurah leaped high to header home. Final score Mandurah 6 Swan 3.
Swan also picked up a couple of head injuries during the course of the match with Isaac Comley and Andrew Vaitekenas having to come off during the second half. Thomas Codd-Aurisch also battled through the game but was visibly struggling with a knee injury.
There were a few standout performances on the day with Keeper Daniel D’Angelo playing the game of the season and read the play particularly well. Mitchell Barker was outstanding at centre half again as he has been consistently all season Dylan Cochrane also had a solid game capped off with a cracking goal. Aaron Quiskamp moved to left back early in the first half to try and stop the rampant winger from Mandurah.
Had we been able to move the ball around like I know we can do we would have made much more of a contest in this semi-final but unfortunately it was the Champions who passed the ball with ease and worked more together as a team over the whole course of the game. To our credit I thought it might be our day when luck went our way along with the desperate defending I have not seen before from our team but this was not to be and our dream of playing in our first final gone for another season.
Well done to the Team for being the only Junior team at the club to make a final.
Swan Team for the U 13’s Semi Final & 2010 squad members-:
Daniel D’Angelo, Tiahna Scandrett,Joel Green, Hayden Atterton, Mitchell Barker, Jay King, Dylan Cochrane, Isaac Comley, Anthony Finis, Gino Hampshire, Aaron Quiskamp, Andrew Vaiteknas, Sam Humphreys, Thomas Codd-Aurisch
Team Manager: Charlene Scandrett
Assistant Coach: Andy Hampshire
Semi Final Linesman: Phil Barker
Coach: Chris Comley