PHOEBE Cave became the first female player to start for Oxley Vale Attunga's Northern Inland Premier League first grade side on Saturday when she played in their one-goal win over North Companions.
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The day doubled as the Mushies annual Beyond Blue fundraiser and Steve James Memorial Shield game, and saw the Mushies finish with a flourish in second grade to beat Companions 7-nil in second grade before notching a 3-2 win.
Mushies coach Tim Coates reported the game was “cut and thrust” until Nash Tapp finished off a solid passing move involving James Bailey, Jack Diebold, Ben Gennardini and Cave.
Chris Fenton made it 2-0 just before half time from a corner kick.
“The second half was again an open affair with both midfields swirling hard before OVA added a third by James Bailey after some great lead up work by Diebold,” Coates said.
At 3-nil the game changed somewhat, he said, with Fenton and Tapp both leaving the field and North Companions scoring two nice goals to cut their advantage back to one.
Brendon Fergie, Eli O'Donnell, Jack Diebold were the Mushies’ best in what was a strong team effort.
East Armidale meanwhile denied Norths United the minor premiership with an upset 1-nil victory.
A win would have secured top spot on the ladder for Norths who were leading heading into the final round.
Fifth-placed Easts were eager for a strong finish to head into the finals series and dominated the opening stages of the match.
A goal in the first half to Corby Kliendienst set the win up for Easts who backed their defenders to get the job done and hold the competition leaders out of the goals.
They kept the Redmen scoreless, the first time since round four against Demon Knights.
Coach Chet Davies said the win was a fantastic confidence booster heading into the semi-finals.
"We are pretty stoked at the moment. We dominated most of the first half,” he told The Armidale Express.
"We were pretty happy with the first half goal but they came back at us in the second half but it wasn't one way traffic.
“They moved some blokes up forward to pinch that goal.”
The win sets up an elimination final with the Mushies in Tamworth next weekend.
Davies said the side aren’t getting too ahead of themselves and knows the side will have to lift again to keep their premiership hopes alive.
"They are looking forward to it,” he said.
"We are just taking it game by game at the moment. We will just keep chipping away at the mountain.
"They have beaten us once and we have beaten them once this year.”