Rd 7 Knox v Norwood
An inexperienced Norwood line-up took the field for Rd 7 of EFL 1st division football, with regulars Luke Hyatt and Jake Ford added to the injury list. Despite the Knox Garden ground being upgraded to the Santa-Anna "Winter" grass, the ground was still wet and slippery, not conditions that tend to suit our young side. The ball was on the ground a lot, with tough physical clashes a feature.
We got off to the best of starts with a mark and fortuitous 25metre penalty in the first minutes giving us the lead via Chambo. However, a strong mark and goal to Leroy was our only other score for the quarter as Knox held sway by quarter time, 3.2 - 2.0
The 2nd quarter saw Knox increase their lead as they continued to dominate possession and inside 50s. Leroy looked dangerous when the ball came forward, but it did so very rarely, his screamer on the goal line the only real highlight of the 2nd quarter as we trailled by 15 pts at the main break 6.4 - 4.1.
The 3rd quarter was our best as we maintained the majority of possession, but we could not turn it into scoreboard pressure, registering only 1.1 to 0.1 for the quarter. At 3/4 time we trailled by 9 points 6.5 - 5.2, and needed a quick start to the last quarter to have a chance. It was not to be however, as Knox scored the first two goals of the quarter. We got one back through Curtis Dunne to reduce the margin to 15, but could get no closer, a goal on the siren to Knox giving them a deserved victory, 9.7.61 - 6.3.39 Not surprisingly, all our best players were defenders again, with Matt Decler's role across the last line of defence completing that of Matt Aver, whose game at full-back belied his years, keeping their dangerous forward Clark (9 goals last week) to a single major.. Stuey Hill's strong marking in defence rounded out the top 3 players for us, while Ev Johnson and Shane Clayton toiled manfully as always.
Our season has stopped to a walk at the moment, our 2-5 win/loss record see us 8th with 4 sides below us, but we're already 10 points from the 'five' and we need a big improvement quickly to keep our season alive. We host Mulgrave this week in what is an ABSOLUTE MUST WIN. Let's hope we can get back on the winners list and then get on a roll like we did last year. Go Wooders
Last Modified on 08/07/2011 09:00