HE might be restricted to kicking with his left foot due to a hip injury, but there was nothing wrong with Henry Shoemark’s hands on Sunday as the Bathurst ’75 goalkeeper came up with a crucial block and helped his side to a 4-1 penalty shoot-out win over CSU Stags.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In a tense Bathurst District Football Association men’s first grade major semi-final, the scores were locked at 1-all after regulation time and an additional 20 minutes failed to produced a winner.
It meant the first spot in this year’s grand final would be decided by penalties.
While ’75s penalty takers kept their composure in the pressure situation, only one of CSU’s attempts found the mark. One was sent wide while Shoemark blocked the other.
“Henry is a pretty big bloke and it was low and down to his right,” Bathurst ’75s Ricky Guihot said.
“But he got down to it really well, given he’s like seven foot, he did really well to get down that low. It was a great save.
“Henry busted himself at the start of the season and missed a lot of games. We had Brad Black fill in but then he hurt himself, so Henry is back in goals for us now. He has still got a busted hip though, so he has to kick left-footed, but he goes alright.”
While CSU went into the major semi-final at Proctor Park as favourites, given they had wrapped up the minor premiership before the final round of the regular season, ’75s side boasted a host of State League experience.
It was ’75 who opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the first half after Jarryd Boustani was fouled just inside the box.
Justin Boustani’s first attempt was blocked by the CSU goalkeeper, but he followed in and put the deflection away.
The equaliser came 15 minutes from full-time after a corner kick scramble in the goal mouth and lucky rebound off the back of Ben Ballantine.
“It was sort of fairly scrappy in the box and Chris New-Tolley’s shot hit the back of another one of his players and ricocheted into the goal,” Guihot said.
“Henry actually went the right way, he had his hands up and everything, but when it hit the guy’s back it just changed direction too quick on him.”
That goal saw the game go into extra-time, and though Stags dominated the first 10 minutes before ’75 lifted and looked more threatening in the second period, no more goals were found.
It saw the need for penalties, Guihot saying it was more a case of ’75s relaxed attitude than their State League experience which saw them become the first side into the grand final.
“We are a side that don’t train, we haven’t trained all season, and the boys just go out there and have a bit of fun and that makes a difference, we don’t blow up at each other,” he said.
“Even when we got to 1-all we were really relaxed and when it came to penalties we were joking around – we didn’t even watched some of them – while they were all arm-in-arm. We didn’t really feel too much pressure.”
The Stags will take solace in the fact they took the semi-final so far without starting defenders Tom Dewey and Alex Ward, as well as reserve striker Andrew Slater. The efforts of attacking midfielder Josh Brown and Dan Clements against ’75 were also impressive.
The minor semi-final between Lithgow and City Colts was marred by injury, the Lithgow goalkeeper breaking his leg attempting to make a save after 12 minutes.
By that point in time Lithgow led 1-0, having scored five minutes into the sudden death match at Proctor Park.
After a long delay and a switch of fields to utilise the lights on the main field as darkness fell, Lithgow finished as 2-0 victors.
They will now face CSU Stags in this Sunday’s preliminary final.
BATHURST ’75 4 (Ricky Guhoit, Jarred Portegies, Todd Jenkins, Josh Toole) defeated CSU 1 (Chris New-Tolley) on penalties