Ben Gilby provides a full report from the game of the week plus all the details from the other matches in Western Australia’s NPL Women’s competition (29/5/23).
Above: Kat Jukic (arms raised), pictured last season, scored Fremantle City’s equalising goal at Murdoch University Melville on Saturday. Photo: Fotoenzo.
Main report of the Week:
Murdoch University Melville 1-2 Fremantle City
Fremantle City’s top-four challenge continues to gather pace as they extended their recent run to only one league defeat in their last seven matches with victory at Besteam Stadium in the late Saturday match.
Murdoch University Melville (MUM FC) went into the match making two changes from their defeat at Perth RedStar last week – a result that ended their run of four successive victories. Rosie Lehane and Vanessa Miller dropped out of the starting line-up with Danielle Brown and Elysse Shore coming in.
Fremantle started strongly with Perth Glory A-League Women captain Tash Rigby driving up the right flank before cutting in and seeing a cross-shot come back off of the angle of post and bar.
Whilst the visitors had the most of the possession and territory, it was the hosts who went ahead thanks to a moment of individual brilliance from their hugely talented young gun Jessica Johnson. Gaining possession just inside the Freo half, Johnson danced through the middle of the park, past any number of potential tacklers, and slotted cooly into the net. In a MUM FC side of young starlets, Johnson is shining bright this season.
The port city side responded by producing their most consistent spell of attacking football all match. Four minutes after going behind, another of Fremantle’s Perth Glory players, Abbey Green showed great skill to break through the left of centre to unleash an effort destined for the top corner, but Stacey Cavill in the MUM FC goal held the shot.
Moments later Green was causing problems again, this time to the right of centre, and once more let fly with a high effort that Cavill grabbed. The same player would later see another shot blocked in the box.
The hosts did show just how dangerous they can be when they get a chance as Sam Mathers broke through along the left just after the half-hour mark, and cut in before firing agonisingly just wide of the far post.
However, just before the break, Fremantle finally turned their possession into a goal. Rigby played a pass from the right to former Perth Glory player Kat Jukic, and Cavill saved with the ball rolling out to the left for Green to float back in. Cavill went up to claim, but couldn’t under pressure from Freo shirts and the ball fell for Jukic to score.
The second half was virtually all Fremantle in terms of possession and territory, and within three minutes of the restart, they were awarded a penalty when Olivia Trueman was felled on the edge of the box between two MUM FC players. Annabelle Leek took the ball, but her low shot to the right-hand corner of the goal was brilliantly saved by Cavill.
However, 10 minutes into the half, the visitors hit the front. Green broke free along the left and played a ball back for Jamie-Lee Gale to play in a sensational pinpoint pass directed into the gap between Cavill and the onrushing Olivia Trueman with the Freo youngster getting there first to head home.
Fremantle were now totally dominant, with the hosts rarely seen as an attacking threat. The visitors had time on the ball to build patiently and look for the right moment to play a probing pass.
As the game approached the final 10 minutes, Green’s skill created another opportunity. She danced her way along the left and squared a ball for Jukic, but the resulting shot was well over the top.
MUM FC collected themselves for a final flurry of pressure. Charli Wainwright was fouled five yards outside the box to the right of centre, and Charlotte Meaden stepped up to curl a free kick towards the bottom right-hand corner, but Dayle Schroeder got across to push the ball away for a corner. Then Johnson hit a long-range shot with three minutes remaining that Schroeder gathered comfortably.
The final opportunity of the encounter fell to the impressive Green who broke through once more and hit a powerful shot that forced a superb one-handed save from Cavill.
Fremantle City look to have put their indifferent start to the campaign behind them. With their Perth Glory stars shining and linking well with the experienced heads in the team, it has allowed their young players to develop the confidence to express themselves further.
Whilst the league pauses for State Cup Quarter-Final action next weekend, Freo will be going all out to continue their fine run when the NPLW WA resumes in a fortnight and they travel to winless Curtin University.
Teams: MURDOCH UNIVERSITY MELVILLE: Cavill, Brown, Schubert, Hope, C. Wainwright, C. Meaden, Hoarau, Shore, Johnson, Mathers, S. Meaden. Substitutes: I. Wainwright, Ierino, Strickling, Hayes, Miller.
Scorer: Johnson 20′.
FREMANTLE CITY: Schroeder, Leek, Trueman, Kiama, Jukic, McCulloch, Waltman, Boorman, Green, Gale, Rigby. Substitutes: Spatafore, Lyons, Osborne.
Scorer: Jukic 44′, Trueman 56′.
Weekly Wrap:
Curtin University 0-4 Balcatta Etna
Photo: Fotoenzo supplied by: Tia Stonehill.
Balcatta won their third match in succession with success at Edinburgh Oval on Friday night against bottom side Curtin University.
The visitors hit the front after 17 minutes. Monique Prinsloo exchanged passes with Carys Davis outside her on the left before the ball finally work its way across to Monique D’Opera on the opposite flank. She in turn found Tia Stonehill who ran on and fired a low shot into the bottom right-hand corner.
Stonehill grabbed her and Balcatta’s second goal four minutes before the break. Andrea Bulgaru’s throw-in just inside the Curtin half on the right found Claudia Hocking. Her ball into the box was deflected up by defender Ava Malata for Stonehill to nod home.
It stayed like that until the 69th minute when Monique D’Opera was found about 25 yards out from goal and hit a shot that bounced through the box and rolled into the net.
The scoring was completed just four minutes later as Stonehill got away along the right, cut inside, and played a low ball across the box which was turned home by Opal Mohammad Zainurrafiq parallel with the back post on the six-yard line.
After a slow start to the season, Balcatta are now firmly in the hunt for a top-four place, and they will resume their bid to qualify for post-season football in a fortnight when they host Subiaco.
Hyundai NTC 0-2 Perth RedStar
Perth RedStar are six points clear at the top of the NPLW WA after winning their sixth league game on the bounce on Saturday against an NTC side whose strong start to the season is fading.
When these two sides met in a repeat of last season’s Top Four Cup Final on the opening day of this NPLW WA season, the NTC’s win raised hopes of a concerted challenge to RedStar’s dominance of the 2022 campaign, but that result feels like a long time ago now.
The game took place at Retravision Stadium in Albany, 417km (just under 260 miles) south of Perth, as part of the Regional Festival of Football. It was RedStar who hit the front with 22 minutes on the clock as Reina Kagami gained possession from a loose NTC pass as the teenage side looked to play out from the back. In the form she is in, Kagami needed no second invitation to advance into the box and drive home into the bottom left-hand corner.
It remained that way until 25 minutes from the end as the NTC suffered again in playing out from the back with the consequence that Sophia Neal laid off an excellent sidefoot pass to Kagami outside the box, centrally. The Japanese attacker took a touch before firing home to go clear at the top of the NPLW WA scorers charts.
The NTC have now lost three of their last four matches and have dropped out of the top four, but there is more than enough talent in this team for them to get back to winning ways. Their next NPLW WA match, after the week’s pause for the State Cup sees them travel to Murdoch University Melville, in a huge game. Both sides will be looking to pick up three points again to push for the top four.
Subiaco 0-1 Perth SC
Perth SC went back into second place after defeating hard-working Subiaco at Rosalie Park yesterday.
The Azzurri edged the chances in the opening half with six shots on target to Subi’s two and had a similar record in the corner count, but it remained goalless at the break.
Perth stepped it up after the break and produced several chances. Subiaco suffered a blow when goalkeeper Ash Riddle, who had made a number of important saves, was injured in denying Judy Connolly, and had to leave the pitch.
The visitors hit the front in the 75th minute when a high ball in from Gemma Craine, returning from injury, on the right was missed by the Subi defence and fell for Monique Godding to sweep home from close range at the second attempt.
The NPLW WA pauses next weekend for the quarter-finals of the State Cup. At this stage of the competition, seven of the eight places are filled by NPLW clubs, with the one remaining lower-tier side, Hamersley United, drawn at home to Murdoch University Melville. There is a repeat of last year’s final with Perth SC hosting Perth RedStar, and two in-form NPLW sides go head to head with Balcatta Etna welcoming Fremantle City to Grindleford Reserve. Subiaco travel to Hyundai NTC in the final tie of the last eight.
Impetus‘ Ben Gilby is part of the judging panel that picks the weekly Squared Ball Analytics NPLW WA team of the week. Their weekly selections can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/squaredball
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