Woden Valley held off a spirited Gungahlin United comeback to take the honours in Round 4 of the Canberra Powerchair League.
It was a very close start between the two teams with both enjoying attacking opportunities but neither team could find the breakthrough. Woden Valley’s closest chance came from a shot from Brandon Stroud which went on the other side of the post.
William McLennan for Gungahlin United went close at the other end, his effort at goal was stopped on the line. The whole half had great defence by both teams meaning that the scores were level at 0-0 going into the half-time break.
The second half saw things open up quite quickly with Woden Valley capitalising. Gungahlin didn’t position themselves in time which allowed Jamie Larsen to quickly take the corner and make a brilliant pass to Brandon Stroud who broke the deadlock for Woden Valley.
The game became an end to end classic with both midfields battling hard to obtain possession. Eventually Larsen fought hard for the ball, which was knocked back to him by the Gungahlin defence, and he made no mistake in slotting home the second.
Gungahlin put Woden Valley under pressure in the last few minutes. Michael Foster, Giovanni Tiyce and William McLennan never gave up and, due to the great pressure, it led Brandon Stroud into making a mistake resulting in an own goal. In the end the match ended up finishing 2-1 to Woden Valley.
Upon reflection of the game, Woden Valley’s Brandon Stroud commented on how Woden Valley and Gungahlin performed in the fourth fixture.
“That was quite an intense game,” Stroud said afterwards. “I thought Gungahlin put up a fight and put great pressure on Woden for most of the match.
“There are still a few things both teams need to improve on but apart from that it was a great match.
“The great defence by Woden was due to really good communication between players. This is why we have training and matches to allow all the players to improve. It will be great to work with teams from NSW to help us improve even more.”
RESULT
Woden Valley 2 (Brandon STROUD 23’. Jamie LARSEN 31’) Gungahlin United 1 (Brandon STROUD 38’ (og))
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Giovanni TIYCE