U/21 Men fight to the end

An inability to capitalise on numerous goal-scoring opportunities has cost the Victorian Under 21 Men’s Indoor Team the points against New South Wales.

In a tight opening match of the Australian National Indoor Championships Victoria went down 2-1 to New South Wales.

Victoria showed excellent team structure and skill throughout the entire match, forcing New South Wales onto the back foot early. The Victorian’s controlled the game well, limiting many opportunities for the New South Wales team and consistently creating great chances to score through quality team play. Unfortunately inaccuracy in the circle left many of the opportunities on the court and not on the scoreboard.

The first of only a few opportunities for New South Wales came in the opening minute when the Victorian backline experienced some early game nerves and miss trapped a ball in their defensive circle, giving away a corner. The Victorian defence showed its composure though and easily saved the shot with Johan Durst running down the shot.

Steve Campbell was the first to score in the match after a great deflection pass from the stick of Luke Young found him in space, in the centre of the court. Campbell then moved into the circle at speed and slipped the ball under the sliding New South Wales goalkeeper to put Victoria up 1-nil after four-minutes.
Victoria lifted from this early goal and continued to create the chances to increase the score line, but were unable to convert the build-up.

The Victorian team were provided with the opportunity for their second goal six-minutes before halftime when they were awarded a corner. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be with a powerful flick from Adam Seccull hitting the crossbar.
The Second half saw more opportunities as both teams fought desperately for the upper hand and the three-points.

New South Wales managed to bring the score back to level terms five minutes into the second half when Heath Ogilvie converted a well-worked corner goal from the left lay-off.

A stroke to New South Wales ten minutes later gave Duncan Pearce the perfect chance to put his team ahead 2-1 and he didn’t miss the opportunity placing the ball firmly into the bottom right corner.

Victoria were then handed a golden opportunity to even the score when Adam Seccull was given a stroke with two-minutes to go in the match. However it was not meant to be with the ball striking the bottom left post leaving the score at 2-1 to New South Wales.

Only a minute later New South Wales were awarded another stroke, however this time Victorian goalkeeper Johan Durst was too quick for Adam Turnbull’s flick making a fantastic glove save to stop the flick going into the top right corner of the net.

The match ended with New South Wales taking the win and the valuable three-points. Victoria’s next match is at 3:00pm today, against ACT, where the Victorians will be looking to gain some much-needed points.