Reserves Match Report (Final Score 2-4)

The Reserves were looking to bounce back from a 1-0 away loss last week and started the brighter of the two teams when they hosted St Kilda SC at Howard Dawson Reserve on Saturday. Right from the start the boys were putting plenty of pressure on the opposition and the SKOBSC wingers were finding plenty of space, especially Sam Power who was causing plenty of problems down the left wing. One of his runs deep into the St Kilda defence eventually found Petters at the edge of the 6-yard box, who duly slotted home his 2nd goal in 3 games. From that point it was the home team who were then on the back foot. St Kilda put more pressure on the ball and started the exert their physicality, which led to a lot of turnovers from the hosts. Luckily, Davide was keeping control of the backline and continually blocked off the opposition’s attacking attempts. So at halftime it was SKOBSC holding a 1-0 lead.

St Kilda picked up where they left off at the half, pressing the boys into turning over the ball and causing problems out wide where the boys were a little exposed. The held firm for a while but eventually St Kilda put themselves on the scoreboard and were deservedly on the board. It would have been easy for the boys to drop their heads but they stuck to the game plan, looking to feed Tommy Fev and Sam into space and trying their best to maintain possession and control the tempo of the game. So it was not long after the equaliser that that man Sam who (again) broke free, his work down the wing found (who else) but the Tip Rat to tap home a trademark goal. So the boys were back in the lead but St Kilda were unwavering in their physicality and pressure on the ball. Their half-time substitution to bring on a “power” forward worked wonders as he continually bossed around our centre halves. It was his outmuscling deep in the SKOBSC box that put the visitors back on level terms. From then the boys were up against it and as they were tiring, so too were their efforts off the ball. When our general Davide went down after a hefty collision, his absence (albeit briefly) opened the door for St Kilda to put themselves ahead after some unchecking left a player free to convert a well-placed cross. The boys did their best and tried hard to the end but some more sloppy defending gave the visitors a somewhat undeserved 2-goal buffer. Although some decent chances fell to our boys in the last 10 minutes at the final whistle it was SKOBSC going down 4-2.  

On paper, it was not a bad result against a good team but 4 goals in the space of around 20 minutes will always have you up against it, as will continually handing back possession of the ball. The boys need to work on maintaining possession and building their fitness so they can play out the full 90 minutes. 

Seniors Match Report (Final Score 0-4)

The seniors were looking to build on their 7-1 thrashing of Old Ivanhoe a week ago but were pitted against a strong St Kilda team, who were 2 wins from 2 and looking to improve upon their +7 goal difference from the first two games. Right from the first whistle the home team were on the back foot as St Kilda did well keeping possession and pressing forward in numbers. The SKOBSC defense held them at bay for a while and continually worked hard at playing Coach Vlado’s passing game. However, it was St Kilda breaking the deadlock on 20 minutes after the boys failed to adequately clear their lines. To make matter worse, not long after the lead was 2-0 as a deflected cross found its way into the back of the net. St Kilda then started to control the game, happy to let our boys chase the ball and exert their superior physicality when the ball was in our hands. 

After the half-time break, it was more of the same as the game was played largely in the SKOBSC defensive half. The boys found possession scarce to come by and when it did they had trouble maintaining it for long periods. A poorly defended corner led to the score stretched to 3-0 and even then St Kilda didn’t let up as our forwards continued to exhaust themselves running around after the ball. A fourth was beckoning and another St Kilda attack with 15 minutes to go led to just that, even though Balmey did his best to keep it at bay with a miraculous double save. Unfortunately, their 3rd attempt slipped past and for the remainder of the game St Kilda was happy to sit on their lead.

The 4-0 scoreline and the way in which it came about should act as a blueprint for what the seniors and reserves should both be striving to achieve – possession domination, working hard off the ball to cause turnovers and finishing chances off clinically. The boys will no doubt bounce back after a disappointing weekend in a fortnight’s time when we head to Maribyrnong to square off against Melbourne Lions SC. Let’s see good numbers at training between now and then to make sure that is the case.