SERVICES had their attack and defence working on Sunday with doubles to Michelle Aslin and Liz Thomas lifting them to a 5-nil win over Flames in their Tamworth women’s first grade clash.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was Services’ second clean sheet in as many games, and second against Flames.
They set the wheels in motion in the first half.
“We were up 4-nil at half-time,” coach Kimmy McLean said.
“We lacked intensity a bit but started to pick it up towards the middle of the half.”
Once they did and started using their short passing game, Flames found it hard to shut them down.
“Once we picked up our intensity in the first half the passes were working and we were stepping up to tackle,” McLean said.
It was one of their better first halves of the season and a turnaround from their last encounter against Flames when they scored the bulk of their goals in the second half.
On Sunday they only managed the one goal in the second half but McLean wasn’t too disappointed with that.
It wasn’t that they played badly, she said.
They changed a few players around in positions in the second half to give them a bit more experience and it didn’t quite click as it had in the first half.
Thomas played really well, McLean said, as did Jess McIntosh.
McLean was backing up from earning selection in the NSW Country side again.
The side to contest the Australian Country Championships in Toowoomba in August was announced following the State Championships on the long weekend.
Flames coach Phil Frear said Services were, on occasion, too good for them.
“For probably the first five or 10 minutes we were reasonably good.
“We held the ball,” he said.
That was what he had asked them to do, but then Servies got a couple of goals and things fell away.
They started going long.
“The last 15 minutes we probably had the better of them,” Frear said.
They got away from that long game and started using shorter passes.
“We attacked their circle for five or 10 minutes and were up in their quarter for probably the last quarter,” he said.
But again it was too little too late.
Kate Ferguson was, as usual, strong for them.
Maddie Doyle was also good, Frear said, while Tegan Smith “had a really good go”.