A 94th minute equaliser from the head of Captain Dylan Deep-Jones rescued a point for Monaro Panthers against visiting Yoogali SC at Stryda Park in National Premier League Round 12.
The Panthers skipper rose highest inside a crowded penalty area to arrow a header past Yoogali custodian Michael De Paoli deep into stoppage time, saving the hosts from defeat, and keeping alive their title hunt.
Whilst the goal was vital in gaining a tangible reward for their weekend’s efforts, the Panthers have fallen off the title pace in recent weeks.
“We are glad to obviously get a point from the clutches of defeat, but a frustrating, frustrating game,” Deep-Jones said. “We should be putting teams like that out of way. It’s a frustrating result to be honest, although we are happy to get the draw, because we were down in the last minute.”
Deep-Jones had only scored one NPL goal before last weekend’s visit to play O’Connor Knights at O’Connor Enclosed, but has now netted in successive weeks, a pair of headers from set-pieces proving this aerial prowess, whilst wearing the armband of leadership was a bonus.
“I am in goalscoring form,” the centre-back admitted. “I’ve been training and working on it, so it’s nice to pay off. But I would’ve liked to do it in a win to be honest. But hey, good to scrape back a point. Wearing the captain’s armband and producing a goal like that in the 94th minute. It’s a clutch moment.”
The Panthers were frustrated they couldn’t get three points out of Yoogali, but content to get a last-minute equaliser against a team that did well to hold their lead against one of the better sides of the competition for that amount of time.
“They were tough to break down, and they were solid defensively,” Deep-Jones remarked. “It was tough for us to break through the lines resorting to playing a lot of balls over the top, which frustrated us, but I think that second half, we started to open it up a bit more.
“We were just unfortunate. The keeper made quite a few saves, so we had good chances, but look, we’ve got to go again.”
Despite the clutch moment, with Monaro trying to catch Canberra Croatia, they were lucky that Croatia didn’t gain another three points to go even further ahead, keeping Monaro in contention with Croatia and Tigers FC.
“Croatia have been setting the pace, really well,” Deep-Jones admitted. “And look, all we can do is just try and pick up as many points as we can and go from there. It feels like points dropped, especially with the pace that the top boys are setting in the minute. So, we need to try and stay in touch with them, and it feels like a two-point drop rather than a point gained.”
With the title race still neck and neck, and Tigers FC also contending, Monaro are seeking revenge in their next home fixture against Queanbeyan City, hopefully giving them confidence going into a head-to-head fixture with Croatia for Round 14.
The Monaro skipper sounded ready for their home derby against Queanbeyan City, hopefully aiming to walk away with three points heading into Canberra Croatia, Gungahlin United, and Tigers FC. A tough few weeks to come but the skipper, after tonight’s push to equalise, will hopefully look to get even more support from his team and the fans.
“It’s a motivation to get one back at them,” Deep-Jones admitted. “They got us, they caught us in a moment where we thought we would have put them away quite comfortably. We can’t take that for granted, I think they won the game, they won 3-2 today, so they’ll be in good form coming in, so we need to expect a tough game.
“The supporter here are always good under the lights. They’re the claw, the young claw, they’re unreal. They’re awesome. It’s great. It’s a great club, great support, and we just hopefully need to try and keep winning for them.”
After losing players in the transfer window, Monaro have managed to bring in fresh faces to the club, hopefully for the better. Two former Panthers, Connor Mynott Smith and Nikos Kalfas are the latest to cross the line with Mynott-Smith appearing for the second time since his mid-season signing against Yoogali.
“They bring energy, they bring quality, they bring you know, attacking edge, and that’s, you can never have too much nice attacking edge, quality up front is always good to change games when they come on and there’s competition for places on top at the moment,” Deep-Jones said.
Monaro Panthers face Queanbeyan City in the second “Clearwaters Derby’ at Stryda Park in Round 13 on Saturday 5 July. Kick-off is at 5.45pm with the match streamed live on the capital Football YouTube channel.
Words: Billy Ansell
