THE Tumut Eagles played out a 2-2 draw with Hanwood at Rawlings Park in Wagga on Saturday.
Eagles coach Lachlan Anderson said it was definitely a different game than the team had faced so far.
“Hanwood always like to dominate the possession stats so I knew we had to be patient.,” he said.
It took us a while to get onto the ball or more than a few passes but despite that, we got an early goal through our pressure.”
Sonny Baden Grady got onto their defence and blew straight past, and finished the move off as well.
Hanwood got a goal back through what Tumut considered a dubious free kick decision and their relentless ball movement and retention paid off for them.
In the second half, Tumut moved things around a little to try and shut down Hanwood’s main playmaker.
“Hanwood were pushing forward more players which allowed us to create chances on the counter,” Anderson said.
“We got an early goal this way. A kick out from Martin Canteros Paz in goal straight up to William Naughton up top. He was able to play a perfect through ball from the right side to Bryton Creati running through the middle who finished really well.”
He said the rest of the game was mostly Tumut defending then trying to counter.
“We could’ve got one or two more goals, but just couldn’t quite put it in the net,” Anderson said.
“Hanwood got their equaliser through some confusion in our defence which left a man open. They even got unlucky with a shot that hit down off the crossbar and looked like it went over.
Tumut keeper Martin Canteros-Paz suffered an injury.
“It definitely got stressful towards the end when Martin got hurt and I had to put Aubrey Petfield in goal,” Anderson said.
“He’s a good keeper but it was still stressful.”
Anderson thought it was a decent performance overall from Tumut.
“We fought til the last whistle and improved from half to half,” he said.
“It’s still a new team so it’ll take time for our connections to get to higher levels.”
Morale among the Tumut team is high.
“The group is really excited,” Anderson said.
“We are playing how we need to and the players are enjoying football.”
Anderson was happy with his whole team’s effort, but singled out some players for praise.
“William Naughton only got better last season and this was his first game this season,” he said.
“I liked how he was moving and his link up play was what we needed. He can become lethal with some consistent game time. I was a fan of Scotty Fitzgerald’s play in defence. He was a good example of what our defence was good with on the weekend. Being decisive, getting rid of the ball when he had to and using it when we had time. Lastly, Sonny Grady was good in midfield. Going both ways we made an impact, even getting a goal. We were a little short in midfield this game so it was tough for Mastellotto and Sonny but they did what they needed to do.”
