A 67th minute Eva Reith-Snare goal salvaged a valuable draw for Confederates on Saturday, the young side snatching two competition points from a thrilling all-Orange women’s Premier League Hockey derby against potential title contenders CYMS.
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With her side trailing the then-competition leaders 1-0 in the shadows of full-time, Confederates won one last opportunity to equalise from a short corner and Reith-Snare executed perfectly, nailing a drag-flick and finding the back of the net.
Naturally, considering Confederates were sitting sixth to CYMS’ first before Saturday, the former side’s coach Fiona Reith was stoked with her side going toe-to-toe with its more-fancied rivals, in what she also called one of the best derby clashes in recent memory.
“It was a great contest,” she said.
“We were committed to each other, the occasion and we were determined to be in the game for the full 70 minutes. Our intensity has been quietly building over the last few weeks and we stepped it up again.
“Our defence has been consistently strong and we delivered there again. The girls, as a whole, are really believing they can be competitive and their hard work and enthusiasm [is paying off]. It’s very pleasing as a coach to see this kind of development and belief.”
CYMS coach Pete Shea gave Confederates plenty of credit, but also conceded his side lacked polish in front of goal and faltered in the last stages of the game.
“Our finishing isn’t quite where it needs to be and I think we lost control of the game a bit in the last 10 minutes. For 60 minutes we controlled things well, we let that slip though and Confederates played well too, they were good enough to equalise at the end there,” Shea said.
“Actually, based on what I saw [on Saturday], I’m quite surprised Feds are sitting as low as they are the table, they’re a good young side.
“Kath Cox was really good in goal for them and Ellen Warner controlled things at the back and their middle is very good too, but even so, I don’t think we should’ve let ourselves get into that position, I’d like to think we’re a better side than that.
“Confederates created plenty of chances but we had a lot of our own as well. We had chances to go from 1-0 and under pressure to 2-0 up and take a lot of that pressure off, but we didn’t execute.
“We’ll learn from it, and keeping trying to get to where we want to be, or need to be.”
The opening half of Saturday’s derby was a grinding 35-minute period, in which neither side could break the deadlock despite creating a number of scoring opportunities.
It wasn’t until the 40th minute that either side finally troubled the scorers, with Libby Smith continuing her good form by sneaking one past Cox to give her side a one-goal advantage.
The two sides continued to fight it out through the middle stages of the second period and there was no lack of feeling or desire, with Confederates’ Grace Evans and CYMS’ Pip Mannix both shown green cards in the final 10 minutes, before Reith-Snare delivered when her side needed her most.
The draw keeps Feds in sixth but makes up two points on the fifth-placed Bathurst Souths, while CYMS drop from first to third.
After a 3-0 win Bathurst City leapfrogs the green and golds into the outright competition lead, while Bathurst St Pat’s move ahead on goal difference thanks to their 7-0 shellacking of Lithgow Zig Zag.
- CYMS 1 (Libby Smith 40’) drew with CONFEDERATES 1 (Eva Reith-Snare 67’)