Palerang United men took their final away game to Yass with a depleted squad of only 12 players. Injury has ravaged the team and a few players were away which left Palerang with 4 under 18 players a handful of early 20 players and a few older crafty players to keep the young fellas on track. The game started and within 5 minutes another blow to the squad with Ben Pritchard tweaking a hammy and retiring from the match which left us down to 11 for the rest of the game. Palerang’s young guns stood up and delivered an inspiring display of determination and grit to be in the game creating great opportunities on the Yass goal. A harsh penalty was given for a hand ball in the goal box and Yass took the lead drilling the ball from the spot kick into the back of the net. Palerang regrouped though and managed to press the Yass defence hard for the remainder of the half creating the majority of attack. Dan Ison and Mitch Moon were inspirational from defence playing with speed and conviction while Chris Grant and Keith Acheson controlled the middle of defence. Johnny Milner was supplying some quality ball from midfield for Brad Prazeres and Scott Birkett up front. James Carey worked some neat combinations with Mark Roberts in the centre of midfield while Thomas Roberts had a blinder out wide with some good ball control and a deft little back heal pass which saw Mitch Moon switch the play and result in a corner kick. The corner was taken and Chris Grant flew above the Yass defence only to slam the ball with a classic header straight at the Yass keeper! His shot deserved the equaliser and the way the Palerang United boys were playing it would only be a matter of time before the scores were level. With 10 minutes to go an inconspicuous shot / clearance from Dan Ison from just outside of the centre circle in our attacking half sailed into the back of the net to level the scores and the game cranked up another gear with Yass coming alive to the challenge of trying to get a winning goal in the final stages. Palerang United were also up to the challenge as the game finally came to an end Andrew Crisp was called on for two great saves to keep the final score level at 1-1.

A fine effort from a very young squad who should be proud of their efforts!

The Men now finish their season with 3 home games in a row and with some recent form a couple of wins on the cards! Kick off at 1pm against Weston Molonglo.

WOMENS

The Palerang United women also took on Yass in Wanniassa and once again had to play with just 10 ladies due to work and family commitments, however a fantastic game was played out. It was discussed before the match that if we played with patience and support when needed in attack then the opportunities would come. What a display these young ladies put on! Execution in the game plan was awesome and if you didn’t count the players on the field for each team it would be hard to pick the fact that we were playing 1 player down. Yass were getting frustrated with the tenacious approach to the game of Palerang United and the opportunities started to come with several shots going wide of the goal. Some excellent corner kicks were taken by Matilda Corby but the ball just couldn’t fall into the right place for a clear shot on goal. Jaye Coble Keely Howard Hollie Wells and Kaylah Jullienne defended well thwarting each Yass attack and Courtney Doyle played with composure and determination from deep in midfield. Kaitlyn Harrison ran all day out wide in midfield and put through some neat balls for Emily Malone to push on to up front. Lauren Campbell played really well in both attack and defence and her reading of the game is improving with each game. Half time came and went and once again it would be our patience in defence that would give us enough ball to create chances on goal and from the kick off Emily Malone had a great one on one chance with the Yass keeper just managing to keep the shot out. The Palerang ladies toiled hard and a sublime ball played through from midfield that saw Emily streak away and slot the ball into the back of the net. The goal was disallowed however because, and i’m not one to whinge normally but, the linesperson was from Yass and it was clear that there were not one but three Yass defenders that were keeping Emily on side. That hurt, however Palerang cranked it up a gear to put even more pressure on Yass and the first goal finally did get buried into the back of the net by Emily to hand Palerang United the lead with about 20 minutes to go. Yass in the last 15 minutes managed to get some more ball in the middle of the field as the Palerang Ladies started to tire and by some stroke of luck Yass levelled the scores with a lobbed shot on target. The final few minutes of the game saw the Palerang United ladies try to get the lead back but unfortunately they ran out of time. An awesome display from Palerang United who knew they did enough to win the game but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Final score 1-1 and next week the clash against Tuggeranong United will be a cracker! Good Luck Ladies!