Match report

Match report

Bright sunshine greeted the players as they arrived at Rob Kilpatrick Park for the first round of the season against Stirling. The freshly marked pitch was in perfect condition as the boys warmed up and received final game instructions from Coach Moran.

Hahndorf started the first half kicking uphill towards the Fairview Road end, but you would not have known as the midfield of Rigby Barnes, Sonjae Cook, Eli Parkyn and Louis Moran monopolised possession in the middle of the park, resulting in plenty of opportunities forward for Cohen Winfield and Thomas Gould. Gould had the best opportunity early in the first half, but his shot clattered off the cross-bar and went out of bounds for a goal kick. This was one of only several forays deep into the Stirling backline that ultimately did not result in a goal.

After this early pressure from the Hahndorf midfield and forward line, Stirling started to press beyond the middle of the pitch, exerting pressure on the Hahndorf backline. Caleb Earley appeared to have developed some kind of teleportation device in the offseason, managing to somehow be in all places at once in the Hahndorf back third. His closing speed and uncanny ability to know where the ball would be before it arrived there, meant that all of Stirling’s attacking moves were repulsed back to the Hahndorf midfield. Harry Wood was also instrumental in halting several of Stirling’s advances and he skilfully fed the ball back to Flynn Menzies and Noah Duggan, who were then able to apply more forward pressure to Stirling’s back line.  One exception was a well-placed through ball that got behind Hahndorf’s defence, but could not faze Jackson Bidgood, who darted off his line to collect the ball at the edge of the box. The constant pressure applied to Stirling eventually bore fruit as at the 30-minute mark Barnes (playing against his old side) neatly pierced Stirling’s left wing and found Moran outside the 18-yard box. He deftly crossed the ball to Gould who controlled it with a delightful first touch with his left and slammed a right foot shot past the keeper for the first goal of the season.

Hahndorf went into the break with a 1 goal advantage. After re-fuelling on the ideal volume of half-time oranges and receiving instructions from Super-Coach Moran, Hahndorf picked up where they left off in the first half. Parkyn and Moran combined on the right-hand side for a delightful combination of passes that saw Moran seemingly float past the Stirling defenders to slide in Hahndorf’s second at the 38-minute mark. It was either kicking downhill toward the football club end or the preseason cobwebs finally being blown out, but Moran’s goal saw the floodgates open. Parkyn opened his account with a shot from close to the right-side by-line, which deflected off the keeper for Hahndorf’s third after 44 minutes. Cook then joined the scorers 4 minutes later, retrieving the ball outside of the box and launching a long shot over the top of the Stirling keeper to make the score 4-0. Samuel Griffiths was working hard in the midfield, providing good balls to Parkyn and Whinfield. This led to Whinfield finding acres of space just outside the Stirling 6-yard box, completing a delightful 360 degree spin and making the score line 5-0 after 56 minutes. Hahndorf kept the pressure on, earning a corner deep in the second half. Gould hooked the ball in from the corner spot and found Parkyn, who after shrugging off his defender, lunged to volley the ball into the Stirling net with his left to score his second of the day and make the score 6-0. This was how the game finished, and the team will take lots of confidence into their next fixture at Murray Bridge.