By BRIAN STOCKWELL
Noosa Lions Match Report
NOOSA was guaranteed two victories to start the week-end with the Friday night games featuring head-to-head battles between the two Noosa women’s sides and the two Noosa Over 35 sides.
Two very competitive games resulted in relative youth winning out over considerable experience as the Noosa Blue sides claimed the win in each of the games.
Also claiming victory on the night was Noosa thirds who had a hard fought 4-3 win over Caloundra. The fourth division was not so lucky after losing their in-form strike John Whiting through a dislocated knee early in the match. Johnno a stalwart of the club playing active roles on the committee and in coaching will be missed.
After many great games in the mini-roos (U6-U11) competition in the morning, the U16 girls kicked off Noosa’s winning way in the competitive age groups on Saturday afternoon. The 9-0 drubbing of Beegees keeps them level pegging with Maroochydore at the top of the table. Despite a determined comeback from Cooroora in the U17/2s Noosa came out victors (6-4) in the local derby to consolidate their position at the top of the ladder. The team has come a long way with coach Craig Thompson who has got the boys playing a mature possession game. While not happy with their performance, captain coach Ben Amson was pleased to get a last-minute victory in the Premier Reserve against rivals Maroochydore to hang on to second position. It took a deceptively quick set shot through the wall by Noosa to break the 1-1 deadlock, much to the chagrin of the Maroochy keeper who was certain his team mates in the wall had deviated to dodge the bullet.
It was a different story in the main match with left back Chris Jancevski skilfully heading a well-placed corner into the back of the net early in their match against the black swans.
The Swan’s mood seemed to get blacker with every goal scored against them with one annoyed Maroochy midfielder missing his intended target when his after-incident shove knocked the yellow card out of the referees upheld hand. Noosa came out with renewed purpose in the second half after going to the break only one goal in the lead. Captain coach Benny Cahn returning from a nasty blow to the eye three games ago, injected himself into the midfield in the second half. Noosa’s key players rallied around him and earned reward from good team play and an effective passing game.
The final score an emphatic 6-2 victory consolidates Noosa’s spot in a congested top 4 , some 7 points in advance of their nearest rival.
