WESTERN are remaining upbeat after a difficult start to their NSW Combined High School Boys' Football Championships at Proctor Park on Tuesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The home association went down 1-0 in their opener against Sydney East before losing to South Coast 3-0 later in the day.
Western couldn't quite match it with South Coast's physicality and work off the ball, and the home association's Campbell Smith said his team did well to take the fight to a strong side.
"As soon as we got to half-time we talked about still being in it and that we still had chances. Until that final whistle went we were trying to bust everything out to try and get that win," he said.
"They were a good side and their pressing was really good. There were some areas where we could have relaxed, looked at each other and done a bit better, but honestly we did well for the team that they are.
"Not many of us have played together. There's only a few Mariners guys who have played together, so with the way we've come out and defended I'm very happy with it."
South Coast got off to a great start in the clash against Western, taking just four minutes to score their first goal.
They continued to pepper the Western goal with a number of shot attempts across the rest of the first half and would have been rueing several missed chances from close range.
Many of those misses came about from some clutch moments of defence from Western, doing just enough to make shot attempts difficult.
Unfortunately for Western they struggled to work the ball out of their own territory for much of the opening half hour.
Western played some of their best football at the start of the second half as they created a couple of dangerous opportunities down both wings.
However, South Coast soon doubled the lead when they scored from the penalty spot.
Inside the last 15 minutes South Coast made it 3-0 when a corner led to a scrappy goal as Western couldn't clear the ball from danger.
It was a similarly tough day at Proctor Park for the home side in the NSW CHS Girls Football Championships.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.westernadvocate.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News