FOR the first time in more than five years, Western NSW has managed to string together back-to-back wins in a regular season Football NSW competition, holding off Parramatta for a 1-0 victory on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The success at Lithgow's Marjorie Jackson Field not only made it two-from-two to start Western's National Premier Leagues 4 campaign, but saw them post consecutive victories for the first time since May 2015.
Back then Western was playing in the State League 1 competition.
While there have been consecutive FFA Cup and pre-season wins, to finally go back-to-back in their regular season competition was something coach Mark Rooke enjoyed.
"It's certainly pleasing at this stage, but I don't want to get too carried away with things, we've just got to keep working hard. We've still got a lot to work on and I think we can do better than we currently are," he said.
The only goal of Saturday's match came midway through the first half and involved the sort of desperation and support play which Western will look to emulate as the season unfolds.
"There was a ball in from Kyle Aubin on the right-hand side and the ball looked like it was going to go out, but Daniel Baumgartner got up high and headed it back across goal," Rooke said.
"Then the ball bounced to Matt Hobby about 10 yards out and he put it in the top corner, so it was a good finish.
"Look, to be honest I thought we were well-deserving of the lead. We started well, implemented the game plan of how we wanted to press them and how we wanted to win the ball and we certainly created some good opportunities.
"We didn't quite execute in the front third how we wanted to, but yeah, deserving of the lead.
"Then on the stroke of half-time we had one disallowed and I'm a little unsure why. Daniel rose high at the far post and headed the ball in, it was deemed to be a foul but the guy he was jumping against was a six-foot tall defender."
In the second half Parramatta lifted, enjoyed more possession and pressured Western's defence. The visitors came close - hitting the framework then denied by a crucial Jordan Bruce save in the final 10 minutes.
But Western held then created their own chances, Baumgartner threatening with an effort from 25 yards out and a diving header from replacement Adam Scimone going just wide.
"They're a really good side and they had a lot of possession, a lot of dominance in the second half," Rooke said.
"Parramatta the amount of ball and half opportunities they had - our guys were really good defensively. They had one that hit the bar, but we scrambled that away."