Almanac Soccer: Bell Park 2 v Surfcoast 1
Bell Park 2 v Surfcoast 1
Surf Coast in dark tops defend a free kick. Photo: Roy Hay.
I signed off last week’s report on a match involving Bell Park by saying they would face much stiffer opposition in their next games. That certainly happened when they required very late goals in both halves of the game to win by two goals to one against Surfcoast on Saturday in Division Four West. The visitors from Torquay took the game to Bell Park from the start, putting together several excellent attacks, and nullifying any breakaways by the home team. Surfcoast constructed numerous combined moves through midfield, while Park was slow to take control of the ball and individual runs came to nothing when they got into the opposition half.
Dominic Versace of Bell Park and Rafiq Halim of Surfcoast challenge for the ball.
Photo: Roy Hay.
The opening goal came in the 26th minute as Surfcoast broke down the right wing and as the cross came in former Geelong striker Jasmin Ikanovic timed his run perfectly and finished cleanly. In Bell Park’s best reply Josh Talev fired a low cross in from the left but there was no one there to take advantage. Jordan Swaney orchestrated a number of good moves for Surfcoast and was unlucky not to score from a free kick. Just when it seemed that his team would maintain their advantage at half time, for once Bell Park mounted a coordinated effort and Johnson Luong pounced from close range.
Bell Park must have had a tongue lashing from coach Anthony Hayes at the interval as they mounted a spell of pressure from the restart, but the Surfcoast defence held out. Frank Hagigeorgiou lifted the siege with a shot which struck the top of the crossbar. Brodric Von Brandenstein brushed off two fierce tackles in a run down the right, but his low cross found no takers. In the last fifteen minutes, Bell Park lifted its game. Talev broke through but his shot trickled past the right-hand post. Swaney denied Talev with saving tackle, while at the other end Rafiq Halim’s header skidded off the top of the cross bar. Finally, in the 88th minute Dylan Young forced his way through a series of tackles and his cross led to a scramble in the Surf Coast penalty area. Somehow Alex Losper got the final touch to leave the All Whites celebrating and Surf Coast rueing their luck.
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I’m enjoying these ‘grassroots’ reports from you, Roy. Quite often, they evoke images in my head of windswept rural and suburban grounds, with not the easiest of surfaces to play upon – but that could be just my creative mind at work!
Thanks, Kevin. The sports editor at the Geelong Advertiser has reduced staff and space, so while he can put the odd piece on the website, there is no room in the hard copy paper. I’ve been out of the loop for the last three years working on 19th century Indigenous football as you know, but now back trying to relearn about the round ball game locally and get it some publicity any way I can. Thanks to the Almanac there is an outlet and I hope we can slowly build up traffic for the site.