GUNNEDAH United are the early Northern Conference pacesetters after edging out Tamworth FC by a goal in Tamworth on Saturday.
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The 3-2 win made it two from two to start the season and was their second big scalp in as many games following their first-round success over last year’s grand finalists South Armidale.
Second grade also had a 0-all draw to give them a win and draw from their first two games.
“It’s better than we’ve done in a long while,” coach Richard Grant said.
He said the win over the Scorpions had buoyed them for the trip.
“We went into it (the game) with a bit of positiveness,” Grant said.
“We knocked it around well and got the first goal to go 1-0 up.”
It came in the 15th minute off the boot of Andy Cygan.
FC levelled 10 minutes later to make it 1-all at the break.
Turning with the wind on their back in the second half, Harley Cheetham restored their one-goal advantage after receiving a nice ball through before Rob Pryor slotted a “screamer” from outside the box to make it 3-1.
“But they kept coming at us,” Grant said.
They got it back to 3-2 with about 10 minutes to go, which “made it very nervy”.
“We had a few scary moments,” Grant said.
He said the momentum swung after FC got their second.
“They thought they could sneak away with something,” he said.
“To our credit we scrambled and got bodies in the road.”
They are, he said, pretty dangerous up front, but have been guilty of being a bit leaky in defence.
Jake Manley was very strong in central defence.
Michael Cooke and Harley Cheetham were also terrific again.