CSU are the first team through to the Bathurst District Football Association men’s first grade grand final after a 1-0 win over the red-hot Abercrombie FC on Sunday afternoon at Proctor Park.

Conditions were vastly improved on what they played in a week earlier in the final round of the regular season, a game that Abercrombie won 2-0 to extend their winning streak to 10 matches.

Making it 11 proved to be a bridge too far, and Abercrombie will now face defending premiers Lithgow in this Sunday’s preliminary final to try and earn another shot at CSU.

For the Stags, the result would have come as a major relief 12 months after bombing out of the finals in straight sets.

A goal in the second half to James Shaw was the only difference on the scoreboard, but CSU coach Brett Russell was delighted with his team’s overall control of the contest.

“It was a really solid effort, we had a full squad available for Sunday which we haven’t had for a long time and it showed,” Russell said.

“We did learn a bit about Abercrombie from the game the previous week, things about where their strengths lay, and we planned to work hard to nullify some of those areas.

“One of the most important changes came about through Jimmy Shaw moving from fullback up into the halves. He scored the winning goal through a big run down the wing before bringing it across into the net.

“In general we played the ball really well in terms of our possession, and we were able to starve them of possession for long periods.”

Abercrombie were far from disgraced and perhaps the end of their lengthy winning run might take some pressure off them. But as an inexperienced finals outfit, they will have to regroup quickly to get past Lithgow this Sunday.

Russell is not concerned with who his team meets in the decider, but admits getting through straight away will get rid of any of the lingering scars from last year’s finals effort.

He added that he thinks Abercrombie are good enough to earn the second spot in the decider.

“We just have to forget about who we’ll be playing and prepare regardless, we won’t be planning around one team or the other. But I have a feeling Abercrombie could win that one,” he said.

“It takes some pressure off for a week now. We don’t have to worry about who’s in or out for this week with uni holidays, we can just go out there and watch the preliminary final and rest up.

“On Sunday we had a lot of great contributors, Jake Brown at left back was our player of the match, Daniel Clements at centre back was outstanding as well.

“The guys just got on with playing football, no arguing about decisions or getting involved in any chat. It was a very mature performance.”

CSU STAGS 1 (James Shaw) defeated ABERCROMBIE FC 0