Left at 1pm from Stadio Dell'a Topper at 1pm and arrived at win stadium (via brandon park cos the organisers and the drivers seemed to be the only people who DIDN'T know the game was at WIN stadium) at 4:30 Got to the ground at thend of the 1st half of the youth game i asked for a student concession and the silly woman behind the counter only charged me for a childrens ticket, so at $3 to see the match you weren't going to catch me complaining! saw Steve as we wlked in, bought a programme, it was really bad, nothing like the Breakers ones are now, they are similar to the programmes 3 seasons ago for the breakers, only this one didn't have any information about the breakers and what to look out for as steve has in his. the theme for the night was 'FREAK NIGHT" where they had some Thespians dressed up in strange costumes.. i'm glad my parents decided not to stay in woolongong back 16 years ago.. otherwise i could have looked strange like them (no comments please! :) ) went to the Southern end of the ground (the only goal end open) and chose seats to watch the youth math. This one was a pretty boring encounter
#2 for the Breakers youth was sent off ab few minutyes into the half and the wolves had the uip[per hand, (and along with 'sideshow' the player with the 'hair') kept attacking and eventually went 1-0 up.
what was more interesting to watch was a stunt plane which happened to decide to start doing stunts on the seaward side of the stadium. What a bloody showoff! but it was entertaining..
The rowdies were unable to make much of an impact. the woolongong crowd was about as alive as the local branch of the liberal partyand only did anything when we started - we starrted the Breakers CLAPCLAPCLAP Breakers CLAPCLAPCLAP etc... and then they started only after we startted with woolongong clapclapclap aS they were all too scared to start it themselves. smarmy gets!
The team was
Zane Bennet Halpin McManus Ironside Wilson Sprod Pryce Austin West Baker Subs:- Michael Williams Ben Lane )----- I think! Matt Lowe )----- I think!
The team was abysmal in the first half. and were lucky to concede only one goal (2 hit the post) there were about 10 of us sitting behind the goal and it was really horrible to see,
Baker lost his confidence early on when he dropped a cross and woolongoing took a shot, there was no structure or order or communication in the defence and they were being caught flat-footed every time, noone was chasing back and the Breakers player that most impressed me for the half was Matt Austin who was the only defender who was doing the job from one particular play a defender broke out on the left of the field and managed to beat half the team, and mattie did a beatifully timed tackle that dispossessed the player cleanly and cleared the ball out, though unfortunately to a Gong player, but he was first to the cross when it came in.
The Wolves were playing fast counter attack style football, and were playing a very skillfull style which was carving up the defence and which was unlucky to go unrewarded. there was on clearance off the line (thanks dougie!) where the ball hit the post and travelled along ther goal line where 2 Wolves were ready to pounce but it was cleared. in one counter attack the Wolves had 5 men 30 meters out from the line, and only one defender was back and one other was chasing back but the three on the left were completely free. But Maloney(?) missed his one on one chance. The goal weas anothjewr counter attack wher Chipperfield kept calm and slotted it past Baker.
The Breakers had some good chances attacking as well, mainly from crosses put in, however the 2 centerbacks always seemed to get to the ball first. #3 & #5 (can't remember their names, left the programme at home) had a great game from woolongong and made some very good tackles.
Half time we were treated to 'chasing the wolf' and a rendition of the Rocky Horror's 'timewarp' song (in the Gong bloke dress up as girls and prance about singing in front of large crowds). the wolf was chased into the goal net and stuffed it up. So security had to step in and fix it.
Security was the biggest joke. there were about 10 blokes in their 50's who all looked they'd been dragged out of a pub andf were all given old, scungy, mismatched bibs to wear. it was really funny!
Kossie must have given them a total blasting at half time, as the Breakers came out and started playing some really nice one touch football and were almost magical to watch. it was such a contrast from the first half. Withing minutes Clayton had a great shot on goal and the breakers were suddently passing the ball around with much finesse and were playing with the spirirt and detemination and SKILL that they have when they are in winning mode. It was magical to watch. The defence sorted their communication problems out and also played as a unit, always backing each other up. At one point, a through ball was put in for Bennet who time his run just perfectly so he was on siode and in the clear, however he took too long to take the shot and puit it over the bar not even forcing a save from Hughes. Breakers were winning corner after corner and eventually Todd McManus Managed to put one into the back of the net, there were a few goal mouth scrambles, Ironside had some good headers that set up some goal mouth scrambles, but they could not penetrate. Dougie was replaced by Mick Williams who did alright but wasn't getting forward enough, probably still adjusting to the fact that he's playing Erricson Cup footie. In the last few minutes Clayton received the ball and was one on one with the keepeer but didn't have time to react to the situation and put it straight into the keeper.
so there you go. i hope it was worth the wait, unfortunately i can't seem to remember too many incidents and the order of which they happened but i'm sending the match report in next week and that shopuld tell you what i missed out on!