SHOALHAVEN Heads ended Bomaderry’s unbeaten start to the season with a 2-1 victory at Vic Zealand Oval on Saturday.
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Heads did most of the damage early in the piece, jumping out to a 2-nil lead in the first half and despite a late flourish from the visitors, they managed to hold on.
The first goal for the home side came after 15 minutes and it was one which left both coaches scratching their heads.
Bomaderry were awarded a free kick, which was ruled to have been taken without their players realising.
Believing they still had the free kick up their sleeves, Bomaderry was caught off-guard as Conor Edenden picked up the ball in the middle of the field and ran through the bewildered defenders to hammer in their first goal.
A second goal to Dane Tasker before the break gave Heads a handy two-goal buffer, which would ultimately prove too much for the visitors to overcome.
Heads managed to hold the score at 2-nil for the better part of 60 minutes, until Mick Hampton finally got Bomaderry on the board in the dying stages.
While Bomaderry finally had the momentum in the later stages of the game, they did not have the time for an equaliser and the score stayed at 2-1.
Heads coach Ross Tasker said he was pretty happy with the result, but felt they still have a lot of improving to do.
“Partial credit has got to go to us for leading for most of the game, but I thought they were a bit unlucky not to snatch an equaliser,” he said.
“We felt pretty comfortable after getting the early lead, but there was still a long way to go and I knew they had plenty of football left to play.
“They livened up a lot in the last 15 minutes and put us under pressure, but to our credit, we hung on.”
It was Bomaderry’s third straight loss to Heads and their coach Doug Foley said it looks like they were becoming a bit of a bogey team for them.
“It just wasn’t our best game,” he said.
“We did manage to claw one goal back, but I think it was a case of too little too late.
“There’s not really much else to say about it, we need to learn from it and move on.”
Heads’ next assignment is an away trip to Huskisson, where Tasker is expecting another tough game.
“I don’t think you can expect any easy game anymore,” he said.
“Once they [Huskisson] start to gel, I think they’ll be right up there, so if we can get a point out of that one, I’ll be happy,” he added.
Foley said his team won’t be too disheartened by one loss and hoped they could bounce back against Manyana next week.
“We’re not totally devastated by it that’s for sure,” he said.
“If anything it’s brought us back down to earth and maybe that’s a good thing.
“With a whole-hearted team effort, I think we can bounce back.”