Pride Fightback Falls Short
Words: Michael Flynn
An understrength Western Pride fought back from two goals down before falling 4-3 to Eastern Suburbs on Saturday at Briggs Road Complex in their first pre-season match of 2015.
Easts shocked the hosts early, opening the scoring through Matt Heath inside two minutes.
Ramone Close netted the visitors second on ten minutes, before new Pride recruit Joe Duckworth pulled a goal back prior to the half-hour.
Close secured his double just before half-time to give the Brisbane Premier League club a two goal advantage at the break.
Pride staged a fight back in the second half – Duckworth scoring his second of the match to add to Harrison Sawyer’s goal.
The comeback was halted with 15 minutes remaining when Kaylum Brown struck the decisive goal for the visitors.
Pride coach Karl Dodd was without injured foundation players Peter Drager and Devon Munn for the match, with new recruits Gabriel Haywash and Nick Haworth also amongst the absentees.
Pride’s Youth Men’s squad also went down 2-1 to Easts in the afternoon’s curtain raiser, with Pride senior squad member Jay Kitching scoring the opening goal on 18 minutes.
Both teams continue their pre-season next weekend against PS4 NPL Queensland opening round opponents South West Queensland Thunder in Ipswich.
Western Pride FC 3 (Joe DUCKWORTH 25’ 65’, Harrison SAWYER 55‘)
Eastern Suburbs FC 4 (Matt HEATH 2’, Ramone CLOSE 10’ 44’, Kaylum BROWN 75’)
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