This evening Berowra Football Club had their inaugural Premier League match under lights against their close neighbours Mount Colah and it was a thriller.
Mount Colah is not only nearby physically, they are also breathing down the necks of Berowra on the Premier League table. At the start of this match, Mt Colah had played twelve matches, won three and drawn three for twelve points in total. Berowra had played twelve matches and won four drawn two for fourteen points.
So, whoever won this match, would move ahead (or stay ahead) of the other.
Got to love a local derby, especially when the outcome is important and it was under lights! I estimated the crowd to be about 500 people filling the stands on this cold winters evening. It was the biggest Premier League crowd I had seen this season.
Right from the start the game was fast and hard.
For the first five minutes Mt Colah stamped its authority winning and keeping possession and then it was Berowra turn. This game would be characterised by good periods of possession, accurate passing and team mates giving their man on the ball lots of options by continually running for space. Sounds simple, but doesn’t happen often.
Berowra looked like they were going to get first honours, bringing the ball out to the right wing, crossing in to the ten yard box and putting the goalie under pressure.
And then sixty seconds later Mt Colah had a good shot on goal forcing the Berowra goalie to dive full stretch to his left.
Both sides spent the entire game showing good mid-field possession. They both brought the ball through the mid-field, either by good dribbling or, more usually through great passing, continually feeding their strikers good ball to work with.
And both sides had good defence and great goalies. As soon as the ball came in to their half, you could hear the goalie take command of the defence like a sergeant major ordering his troops around a parade ground. Both sides did it to great effect shutting down the continual attacks from their opposition.
Twenty two minutes in to the first half, Mt Colah had a good shot on goal which hit a Berowra hand on the way through resulting in a large appeal for penalty. The Mt Colah striker hit the ball way high of the goal from the penalty spot soliciting a huge roar from the partisan crowd.
Ten minutes later the Berowra forward beat the defence and only had the goal to get past. He flicked the ball over the goalie’s head, but it sailed on up over the cross bar. So close and the crowd were loving the action.
Half time and although the scores were 0:0 This has to be one of the best games of Premier League football played all season.
Football is a game of two halves and the first half was merely an introduction to the pace of the second half.
Mt Colah came out firing and the Berowra goalie had to push the ball off to his left to save a certain goal.
Berowra took possession and over a long build-up, brought the ball down the field and had a good shot on goal only to be saved by a Mt Colah defender which solicited a massive groan from the crowd willing their side to get on to the score sheet.
Mt Colah had several corners in the second half and the ball was continually floated on to the edge of the six yard box, only to be cleared away by the impenetrable Berowra defence.
Berowra returned the favour bringing the ball up and heading for goal only to go narrowly over the cross bar.
The second half remained scoreless which did mean there was quite a lot of niggling and frustration form both sides as they simply could not get through their opposition’s defence.
Four minutes from time Mt Colah had a good shot on goal making the Berowra goalie go full stretch to his right to save the ball. However, the ball came away from the goalie forward but the Mt Colah strike did not follow his shot in to the goal, missing the chance to have a follow-up shot and possibly grab a match winner.
Sixty seconds later the ball is back down the other end of the field and a cracking shot from Berowra required a superb save from the Mt Colah goalie pushing the ball out for a corner to his left which was the last play of the evening.
Final score 0:0 in a thriller at Berowra this evening taking one point each from the match.
West Pymble snuck up one spot with a win Chatswood Rangers and therefore Berowra stay ahead of Mt Colah with West Pymble sitting between them now.
End comment: This evening was a great demonstration of community good that can come from floodlit grounds; hundreds of people came out to watch this local match. It didn’t cost them a penny to enter the grounds and have ninety minutes of thrilling football. I would love to see more of this.
