WEEKEND WRAP | 18 JULY

It was a historic day for the club as all ten graded club teams picked up points on Saturday. In a first for the club, all teams were undefeated across the day. The girls were a perfect three from three whilst the boys were four wins from five. Both senior grades were unlucky not to get maximum points.

14 GIRLS (WON 1-0)

Ian McLenan park saw the South Coast Flame come up against Camden Tigers in what was the girls first home game since returning to play.

The game took a while to get going with both teams a bit slow out of the blocks. As play progressed, patterns emerged, and it became clear that this was going to be an end to end game played at a high pace. The early exchanges gave insight into the improvements the flame had made in their defensive discipline since round 1. The South Coast girls broke the deadlock in the 20th minute when Alivia Beath shocked the onlookers by spotting the goalkeeper off her line and scooping the ball over her head from 30 yards. Beath was a constant threat to the opposition with her pace in behind.

The second half began as the first finished, with the flame carving out chances through some incisive passes from Jess Llewellin and co in midfield. Before long, the Tigers made a tactical adjustment in their backline to reduce the effectiveness of the Flames killer passes. The second half began to ebb and flow and the girls’ transitions from attack to defence were vital as the final whistle began to approach. The Tigers finished strong and it took a gritty defensive performance to shut them out in the final 10 minutes.

Beath’s second goal in as many matches proved to be the difference as the final whistle sounded. The girls can be proud of their resilience and willingness to improve their defensive efforts to secure a clean sheet and the win.

Player of the Week: Jessica Llewellin

Jess performed at a high level during a disrupted week of training due to the weather. She applied instructions with great efficacy which translated into her game on the weekend.

Her performance caught the eye of multiple flame coaches as she led by example and played with high intensity. She also played up an age group following the U14s game and filled a role she was not entirely familiar with showing great adaptability.

15 GIRLS (WON 2-0)

Flame welcomed Camden Tigers to Ian McLennan Park for their first home game of the season. Camden had beaten South Coast convincingly in a trial match before the football shutdown, the Flame girls were focused and ready to put in a better performance this time around.

The first half began with Flame holding possession and moving Camden around the field, before finding their moments to pierce the Tigers defensive lines. Their possession paid off on 6 minutes as Lauren Brooks was able to turn her defender and drive into the penalty area, calmly slotting the ball past the Tigers keeper to give Flame an early 1 nil lead.

Flame continued their pressure and found more gaps in the Camden back line through some precision passing from Caitlin Russell. However, some good saves from the Camden goalkeeper and some sloppy finishing kept Camden in the game.
Minutes before half time, a deflected clearance from the Tigers goalkeeper found Bethany Horton inside the penalty area. She turned her defender and made no mistake from 12 yards out to give Flame a well-deserved 2 nil lead going into half time.

The second half was more of an arm wrestle with Camden coming out stronger and beginning to make chances. Ruby Blanch and Lili Rosandic were strong in defence, whilst Charlotte Palmisano made some important saves when she was called upon.
As the game ran down, a few half chances from the Flame kept Camden pinned in their half but no more goals were scored, and South Coast claimed a comfortable 2 nil win.

A big thank you to Melody Pierags and Jessica Llewellin for stepping up from the U14’s to help with our growing injury list. Both girls were lively and positive in possession and well-disciplined in defence.

Player of the Week: Caitlin Russell

Caitlin is well-rounded player who sets the benchmark for quality and effort every training week. Her technical ability was on show against Camden as she found space and time all over the pitch and used her passing and vision to break the Tigers defence at-will.

17 GIRLS (WON 5-0)

With only 10 fit players available for selection, this game had the potential to be a banana skin for us. Once again, we would have to call for reinforcements from our u15 squad.
The girls came out with a more determined mindset this week and in was apparent early that they weren’t going to let this one slip. Camden were finding it hard to play their way past our high press, and when they looked to play long, we were ruthless in winning the ball back quickly.
While our ball movement and passing accuracy had been a little off last week, there was a definite improvement this time round. We were able to shift the ball from side to side quickly and play our wide attackers in to promising positions frequently.
With a 3-0 lead at half time, the result was pretty much assured. The challenge was to maintain our standards for the second period which we were able to do after a slightly slow start.
In the end we were able to score two second half goals, with quite a few good chances not converted. Our short combination passing in the final third is something we’d been working on at training, and it was nice to see it being used to add some variety to our attack late in the game.
Special thanks to Beth, Caitlin, Charlotte, and Isabella from the 15’s for backing up and all putting in solid performances.

Player of the Week: Sariah Wilson

Worked tirelessly off the ball and was consistently winning possession back in midfield. Her decision making and passing range in attack was excellent, and really helped get us on the front foot.