U14 B
After a wet wild Friday night, Castlemaine swam onto the pitch at Chewton expecting a hard fought game against Spring Gully Green.
The team started well, scoring in the first 10 minutes with a wonderfully executed goal by Harrison.
Not to be outdone, Spring Gully fought back with a fast break equalizer only minutes later to throw the game back into the balance.
However it wasn’t long before the Castlemaine defence began to exert their control over the game with Paddy in goal and Otis and Wilson continually taking the ball off Spring Gully forwards and transitioning the ball to a the Castlemaine midfield led by the greatly improved Kale whose poise and commitment is building each week.
Harrison’s second goal followed before another long ball led to Spring Gully equalizing against the run of play.
That was really the last chance Spring Gully had as the Castlemaine midfield began to make the most of the balls driven forward by the Castlemaine backs.
Jimmy, Ronan, Eli and Oscar soon scored, and Rex, running rampant on the wing, constantly made great runs on the right and crossing the ball in time after time. At half time the score was 6-2.
After half time, Paddy came out to right back and Rex dropped back into goals. Paddy proved to be as tough to get past at the back as in goal as Spring Gully rallied time and again as a physical and honourable opposition, testing the Castlemaine resolve.
But now with Paddy at the back and Otis indomitable it gave Wilson some space to really stamp his authority on the game, making wonderful runs from the back and feeding the ball forward with incisive passes.
Dohtan and Tom enjoyed the space up front, creating lots of opportunities after changing with Eli and Harrison, who after scoring again, went back to gain some experience in defence.
Will demonstrated his stamina in the midfield, providing some excellent second half running. Dohtan was unlucky not to join the scoreboard on several occasions including a well taken penalty which was just saved by the Spring Gully keeper before Castlemaine scored again through Jimmy.
Castlemaine went on to win comfortably 9-2 but Spring Gully fought out the game to the end and the score line did not do them justice as they were a worthy opposition who played some good football at times but were overwhelmed by the passing game of the improving Castlemaine.
U12B
Injury and illness conspired to leave Castlemaine with a small bench for their League Cup match against a tough Spring Gully on a rough pitch in Bendigo.
The Mainers started brightly and though a few early chances were squandered, still found themselves three goals to the good at half time.
Two quick replies by Gully in the second half emboldened the opposition who clearly sensed an upset.
Matters appeared dire when a resurgent Gully was awarded an indirect free kick deep in the box. However, this appeared only to galvanise the Mainiacs: the danger was averted, all further attacks were decisively thwarted, and the Mainers were again attacking at will when the final whistle blew.
Castlemaine defeated Spring Gully, 4-2. Goalscorers: Jack (1 pen.), Miro (1) and Himal (2).
