Western Suburbs 3 Team Taranaki 1
Elijah Just 1
Owen Parker-Price 32
Xavier Green 39
Paul Cunningham 75
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Wests Formation (4-4-3) Team Taranaki Formation (4-4-2)
Andrew Withers
Alex Clayton, Michael Faber, Kyle Adams, Dalton Wilkins
Dominic Wooldridge, Harry Edge, Owen Parker-Price
Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just, Xavier Green
Wests Subs:
Noah Billingsley for Harry Edge (46 mins) – Re-shuffle with Callum dropping into midfield and Dominic to the pivot role
Matt Garbett for Elijah Just (70 mins) – Straight swap
Marko Stamenic for Xavier Green (70 mins) – Straight swap
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Wests maintained their 4-point lead at the top of the Central League with a hard-fought, but well-deserved 3-1 victory over Team Taranaki (TT) on a mainly fine day at Endeavour.
For the fourth consecutive match, Wests were unchanged, and there was another healthy crowd in attendance, to witness how Declan Edge’s young Wests side could cope against a robust and resilient TT outfit.
TT’s game-plan was to stifle Wests with two tight defensive banks of 4, and leave a couple of hard-working attackers upfront to try to exploit any slip-ups from the Wests defence. Unfortunately, their tactics hit a major snag in the very first attack. An excellent pass from Andrew Withers was well-controlled by Dominic Wooldridge, who then combined with Callum McCowatt to win the ball back after it was momentarily lost. The ball dropped free to Elijah Just who hit a great shot that visiting keeper, Santiago Fernandez, got finger-tips to, but could not keep out.
Despite being a goal behind within a minute, TT stuck to their formation, and sloppy defensive mistakes from Wests twice gifted TT with equalising opportunities, but neither chance was converted. TT certainly started to make their mark on the game with some no-nonsense, ball-man-and-all tackles, and it wasn’t long before the first of many yellow cards was brandished.
As usual, Wests dominated possession, and as the half wore on, they started to more accurately target the narrow channels in the TT back-line, with Elijah Just and Xavier Green particularly lively. Just after the half-hour, Wests scored a fine second goal when Harry Edge (who had earlier been somewhat harshly booked) delivered a superb free-kick to meet Owen Parker-Price’s darting run, and he controlled perfectly before slotting home.
It quickly became 3-0 when Xavier Green pestered a TT defender, blocking his attempted clearance before racing clear and producing a cool finish. Wests’ confidence soared and they played their best football in the latter stages of the first half with several neat passing movements, resulting in fine efforts by Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just and Alex Clayton.
Declan Edge re-shuffled his team for the second half, withdrawing Harry Edge, replaced by Noah Billingsley, with Callum McCowatt dropping to midfield, and the impressive Dominic Wooldridge taking over the pivot role.
Wests continued to eke out decent chances, but found the TT goalkeeper in excellent form, as he made great saves to deny Dalton Wilkins, Callum McCowatt, Noah Billingsley and Elijah Just. If one of those efforts had gone in, TT heads may have dropped, and the score-line could have blown out.
TT stayed resilient however, and created a few half-chances for themselves, but were constantly snuffed out by the impressive defensive duo of Kyle Adams and Mikey Faber. TT’s confrontational and border-line tackling resulted in several bookings, but also rattled some of the Wests players. Indeed, Callum McCowatt and Dalton Wilkins managed to even-up the bookings count, attempting to referee the game themselves, before realising that it is the officials who dish out the cards!
A consolation goal arrived for TT on 75 minutes as Paul Cunningham glanced home a perfect in-swinging near-post corner. Wests were never in danger of throwing away the win though, and substitute, Matt Garbett, was twice denied in the closing minutes, first by yet another good save from the TT goalkeeper, and then when his 25-yarder crashed back off the bar.
So, a rare scoreless half from Wests, but they still comfortably overcame the vigorous challenge of Team Taranaki.
Player of the Day:
3 points – Dominic Wooldridge – Outstanding versatile performance adapting to more defensive second half role
2 points – Alex Clayton – Constant threat down the right, and very solid on D
1 point – Elijah Just – Lively performance, scoring one and linking well with teammates to create several openings
