It was a very wet Saturday at Chewton for Castlemaine Goldfields Football Club’s juniors as players, coaches all braved the damp weather to put on a show for the supporters on the sidelines.
From our U10s to our U16s the rain wasn’t able to dampen the spirits with players giving their all in the challenging conditions before heading home for a well-earned warm shower.
Away from Chewton around the grounds the weather was a bit more favourable, none more so than for the U14 Matildas Gold and U16 Gold who both enjoyed a balmy sunny 21 degree day at Swan Hill. For the U16 Gold the match up saw them face second placed Swan Hill who were also undefeated for the season heading into the game. A proper ‘six pointer’ saw the Maine come away with a hard fought 1-0 win to move three points clear at the top of the ladder in the U16 Pre-Qualifying Comp.
This weekend sees Regional Juniors and all Bendigo Amateur Soccer League (BASL) teams take a break as those players involved with their rep squads head to Ballarat for the Country Champs. Good luck to all CGFC players and coaches representing BASL at the comp as well as any of our local referees officiating on the weekend.
Seniors and Youth
It was another mixed weekend for our Senior and Youth squads. The Women and Men’s First team both took out solid wins. In the Women’s League 2, League Cup Round 2 the Women took out a 3-0 win away to Epsom.
Goals came in the first half to Eva Thacker, after one minute, Ziggy Williams and Noora Niasari. Epsom put on a solid display second half to keep the score line at 3 goals.
In Div 5 the Men overran Point Cook 9-1. Like the Women once again it was three goals in the first half for the Maine, but the second half saw a real blow out as the Men turned in another 6 goals to Point Cook’s 1. Scorers on the day were Ashley Taisau (4), Tom Slater, Ollie Gunter, Dotahn Henderson and Michael Jones. The win sees the Div 5 squad head into a top of the table clash vs Spring Hills this Sunday at Chewton in an 11am kick-off.
The Youth and Div 7 Men were both on the wrong end of the results. At home to Shepparton United, on a sticky Chewton pitch the Youth squad went down 3-0 to Shep in a pretty heated game that saw 10 yellow cards and red for a second yellow to a Shep player. From 1-0 down at half time and even with a one player advantage ‘The Prospects’ were unable to get a hold in the game to stage a comeback instead conceding a penalty in the 66th minute and a third goal in the 69th.
Castlemaine Goldfields’ Reserves team were on the road again this week and unfortunately the tough run continued, this time going down 2-0 to RMIT.
On a narrow pitch that restricted us from playing some of the football from the week before, Maine struggled to get into any rhythm for most of the first half, conceding a sloppy goal just 10 mins in. Most of the first half continued to be very difficult for Goldfields, who lacked composure and were outplayed for large parts of it.
At half time there were some strong words from the coach and amongst each other, focused on finding improvement and settling on the ball. Largely it was a different side that came out after halftime, playing a better game of football and using the ball in a much better fashion. In the final third there was not the composure that was required and RMIT defended well. As Maine pushed for the equaliser they again conceded a goal which took the game away from them.
Claudio was solid at the back all day and deserves a mention, and a huge improvement in the second half, but there were few other winners on a frustrating day down in Melbourne. This week the Reserves are back at home and will try and absorb some of the winning ways of the First team, who are flying in their game against third placed Melbourne Uni at 1pm.