Warriors’ season to go down to the wire
NORTH Geelong’s promotion chances will go down to the last weekend of the regular season after a frenetic 3-2 win over Werribee City yesterday.
The Warriors had to fight a one-goal deficit on two occasions, inspired by the efforts of playing-coach James Coutts, who scored one and assisted another in his best game for the club since arriving midseason.
It wouldn’t have been a North victory without keeper Hamish Flavell making a diving save in the dying stages to see off a third Werribee goal to secure a famous away win.
“It was an emotional game and a rollercoaster but I couldn’t be prouder of the players,” Coutts said postmatch.
“When they got the second goal it was a bitter pill.
“To come back twice considering the result down the road at St Albans as well, it’s just a massive one for us.”
Second-place incumbent St Albans Saints were smashed 5-0 by Altona Magic, meaning a North win a Saints loss next weekend would elevate Coutts’s men to a promotion playoff match, an unlikely result three weeks ago.
“We told the boys what the (St Albans) score was because I like pressure — I want them to be able to deal with that. They need to be able to deal with that,” Coutts said.
North’s first chance to redeem its poor first half last week saw a passage of sublime passing and transition play eventuating in a disallowed goal to Darius Madison, who was deemed offside.
The exhilarating opening minutes continued with Werribee keeper Thomas Dunn being called into action twice in the space of seconds, which ended up in two painful saves for the City stopper needing two bouts of medical attention.
Dunn was substituted midway through the first half and his replacement Christian Rossi was tested out early after Madison managed another shot on target, this time nearpost after a lovely played ball inside from Coutts.
Werribee struck first in the 52nd minute through Jake Butler but the lead lasted seconds as Madison and Coutts combined once more, this time resulting in Coutts’ first goal for his new club.
Werribee took the lead once more and it seemed North may have been left ruing their failure to take their chances in the first half.
Up came Coutts again, this time in the role of assistor, sensationally keeping the ball in close to the touchline and managing to find centre back Ben Hampson, who headed home a simple finish.
The rollercoaster peaked once more when left back Nicholas Teichmann became the hero, striking home a quality finish in the 75th minute to gift North the most unlikely of leads.
Dom Marafioti missed a penalty on the brink of 90 minutes in what would have been the sealer before one final Flavell save in front of a cluster of bodies secured a win to remember.
“When I first came in the dressing room was a little bit detached because of the stuff that had gone on but I believe the boys have bought in on what we’re trying to do here,” Coutts said. “It shows we need to take chances and be a bit more ruthless early on but it also shows our character coming back and you can’t coach that.”