On a beautiful warm afternoon last Sunday the Canowindra Redbacks did battle with last year's premiers the Bathurst City Colts.
As I reported last week the Redbacks are in a rebuilding phased trying to gel a new team together.
As game time approached we were rocked by the news that one of our best defenders was unavailable to play today which meant a major reshuffle of the side.
With coach Vince attending his first game of the year it was up to him to select positions of the players in the knowledge that he hadn't seen any of the new players play before.
He therefore had to rely on the knowledge of the banished strapper to give him a quick rundown of player ability and preferred positions.
This was the chance that the strapper needed to show the coach that he had an idea of what was going on.
So as one, the two of them knocked up a game plan to try and counteract the attack of the Colts.
The first half of the game went well with very few scoring chances from either side.
The defensive plan was working well and the half time score was nil all.
Both coaches of the Redbacks were very pleases with the scoreline and just told the team to continue on in the second half.
After approximately 25 minutes of the second half the score was still nil all.
It was still anybodies game.
Redbacks were ont eh attack again and Taryn was trying to find a way through the Colts defense when she was fouled in front of the net and the Redbacks were given a penalty shot from in front.
Jo Wilson was given the shot and as she normally does she drove the ball into the back of the net.
Redbacks 1, Colts 0.
This stirred to Colts up and they seemed to go up another notch and it wasn't long before the scores were tied up at 1 all.
With 10 minutes to got it was game on with the Colts relentless in attack.
As reported in an earlier report the Redbacks were in trouble with not being able to find a goalkeeper.
So in todays game we took a gamble and played someone who played her first ever game of soccer last week.
Megan Power is her name and now goalkeeping is her game.
She has hand about 20 minutes coaching at training last Wednesday and a 10 minutes pep talk from coach Vince before the game to take in some of the finer points at goalkeeping.
She had an excellent game saving all the shots that she could.
Together with a stand in goalkeeper Michelle, hopefully we will have that position covered this year.
With 5 minutes to go the stretched defense of the Redbacks broke and the Colts score the winning goal to make the final score Colts 2, Redbacks 1.
In the washup of the game both coaches were very pleased with the efforts of their players as it was a huge improvement on last week.
Last week I mentioned in the report that we did not beat the Waratahs all year.
This was just a little poly to get the players all fired up for today's game.
As the players turned up for training last Wednesday I was told in no uncertain terms from a number of players that we in fact did beat them 2 out of 3 games last year.
The little plan worked with a lot more aggression shown during the game.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Next week we travel to Bathurst to play the newly formed Macquarie United team.
This is a 1.00pm game and we hope that as many supporters as possible can come.
This is the start of a difficult period for us as we have four away games in a row.
A not for all players, training will be at 3.00pm next Wednesday until approx 4.30pm, and then maybe we all progress to a few drinks and sausage sandwich after that.
Our after-game barbecue's wouldn't be possible without the generous support of our local Belubula Butchery.
A big thanks goes to Toby, Mat and staff for all their help.
The meat tray raffle this week was won by Sue Vitnell.
The money raised by the raffle goes towards the players to help with transport costs and end of year presentation night costs.
Young Caitlin Walker ran the raffle this week and raised a very good amount for us that will be hard to beat throughout the year.
(Part time coach) The Banished Strapper.
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