University beat Albany with a calmly taken goal early in added time to defeat Albany 2-1.
Albany came out stronger and dominated the first 10 minutes of the match. It had all the possession but could not make the final push into the Whales defence.
Then, against the run of play, the students went up the other end and forced a penalty corner. A stroke was called for a foot on the goal line and Kieran O’Connor converted to give University a 1-0 lead. Albany regained control of the flow of the match and pressed hard but again to no avail.
Once again, University broke out and nearly went 2-0 up but Albany goalkeeper Hamish Van Dyk kept his team in the game.
The game got a bit loose towards the end of the first half as each side was more happy to attack.
The second half went the other way entirely, as this time it was University which started the stronger, controlling the pace and possession of the match but now it was its turn not to score.
Albany managed to break out and earned a penalty corner up the other end.
After the initial play, Albany grabbed the equaliser through Caleb Booth. As in the first half, as the clock wound down the game really opened up, University at one stage was down to nine players as two were carded at the same time for different offences but Albany could not capitalise.
Extra time came and, as the teams dropped to nine each with no keepers, the deadlock did not last long.
O’Connor found Stirling Milicich with a 50m pass across the field and Milicich was able to calmly get into the circle and push home the winner.
- Matthew West
