Thunder Women Overcome Olympic
Words: Matt Dorman
Image: Paul Smith/SWQ Thunder
SWQ Thunder Women secured consecutive wins for the first time this season with a hard-earned 3-2 defeat of Olympic FC Women at Clive Berghofer Stadium on Saturday.
The home side saw a two-goal lead eroded in the second-half but steadied to score late for their fourth win of 2015.
Victory moves the Toowoomba team at least temporarily into eighth on the PlayStation® 4 NPL Queensland ladder.
Despite Olympic having a pair of early corners, Thunder struck first in just the fifth minute when Jordan Franke latched onto a through ball to finish for 1-0.
Opposing goalkeepers Amylea Leadbetter and Ellen Hepburn were both called into action midway through the first half to keep the margin intact.
Leadbetter’s save proved even more decisive for Thunder as they captured a 2-0 lead prior to the break with Elle Mollenhauer driving home Kiama Gray’s corner.
It was game on again 10 minutes after the restart though, Jessica McLean making no mistake from a byline cutback to halve the margin.
Olympic’s quickfire comeback continued with an equaliser in the 67th minute courtesy of Allira Toby.
The attacker drove through two defenders before firing home to pull the visitors level at 2-2 and set up a grandstand finish.
Thunder ultimately responded in the best possible fashion by recapturing the lead with seven minutes remaining.
An initial shot on goal was unable to be held by Kirsten Veeren, who replaced Hepburn in Olympic’s goal at half-time, and Abbey Lloyd was on hand to tuck away the winner.
Speaking after the match, Thunder coach Craig Burgess paid tribute to his team’s much-improved form.
“When you go from Round 7 where we lost 11-1 to actually get a win this time around, the hard work the girls are doing is obviously paying off,” Burgess said.
Olympic coach Phil Canham conceded defeat was a fair result.
“To be honest I don’t think we deserved a point out of it. The first half especially was well below what we expect,” Canham said.
Listen to the full post-match interviews below.
SWQ Thunder FC Women 3 (Jordan FRANKE 5’ Elle MOLLENHAUER 40’ Abbey LLOYD 83’)
Olympic FC 2 (Jessica McLEAN 55’ Allira TOBY 67’)
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