LEAGUE-LEADERS Gerringong were forced to settle for a draw on Saturday, in their grudge match against reigning-premiers Culburra.
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In a replay of last year’s grand final, the visitors scored first through Brent Austin before the hosts equalised through Mitch Blundell in the second half.
“It was a great game - Culburra are very strong at home and I had been looking forward to this match,” Breakers coach Jadon Lavington said.
“We went into half-time up 1-nil and knew we would have to try and absorb their unrelenting style.
“It was pretty disappointing to leak a goal but that's football.
“I thought sharing the points was fair as both teams had great games and it was very entertaining for the crowd at Culburra.”
Culburra counterpart George Kulcsar echoed the thoughts of Lavington, saying it was again a very exciting game between to two foes.
“We didn’t start as well as I thought we could have, but were certainly in the game through the early stages,” Kulcsar said.
“They then scored from a good strike, which forced us to chase the game a little.
“We changed our system tactically and that seemed to help against the benchmark side in the competition.
”This change created plenty of chances and we were pretty unlucky not to score before Mitch Blundell found the back of the net.
“We could have easily taken all three points in the end-to-end match but so could have the Breakers.”
While Kulscar was overall happy with all his troops, he was particularity impressed by two players.
“Young Martin Thompson again had a strong game – after a couple of handy games, we gave him the task of marking one of the top players in the competition in Paul Gaffney,” he said.
“On a difficult opponent, I thought he did well, for a player who is obviously still learning.
“I was also impressed by the way Jake Powell came back into the side and contributed on the field.”
Huskisson made it two wins on the trot by defeating Shoalhaven United 5-1 at Lyrebird Park – thanks to a brace from Josh Hawker and goals from Gary Neimeier, Brendon Hiriart and Barra O’Connell.
“It was good to backup the results from last week on Saturday and score a few goals at the same time,” Huskisson coach Rob Hawker said.
“Credit to United as they had a lot of players out and pushed us pretty hard in the first half but we managed to get away in the second half, once we scored.”
In others results, St Georges Basin used goals from Dane McGinn (two) and Connor MacQueen to defeat Milton, Bomaderry kept pressure on first-placed Gerringong by defeating Shoalhaven Heads-Berry thanks to goals from Brendan Kellett (two) Kevin Jackson (two), Jordan Haddow and Nick Evans, while Manyana edged Sussex 2-1.
Illaroo had the bye.