South Australia wins first game in 2011 Australian Hockey League – Hockey Update
Matthew McGregor and Brady O'Shea rendered outstanding performances and marked one goal each, as South Australian Men’s hockey team on Tuesday, August 9 earned their first victory over OAMPS Queensland in the 2011 Australian Hockey League (AHL) underway
at the Sydney Olympic Park.
The team of Southern Australia is holding lowest position at the point-chart with only one victory in the 2011 season. Amazingly, they earned the solo win against high-profile Queensland by a single goal, 2-1 and broke the curse over failures. The results
of the match not only shaken the high-flying Queensland but at the same time boosted the morale of South Australian players. The triumph enhanced their confidence and rejected the impression that could not win a game in the current AHL season.
Before entering into field, both the South Australian team and Queensland were hanging on different edges. The Queensland line-up was confident for making another victory over the low-profile and out of form SA. However, the results were quite different
after the seventy minutes of play. From the very early minutes, the players from SA started a disciplined game and displayed perfect passing. Their player-positioning was also wonderful which put the opponent Queensland under pressure from the very beginning.
With well-organised and upright game, the Men’s team of Southern Australia earned loads of goal-scoring chances in the early part of the match. Nathan Burgers, the Queensland’s goalie was at his best and denied all the strikes superbly in order to keep his
team in the game.
On the other side, the squad of Queensland was struggling to eliminate the pressure in the head of back-to-back attacks from SA.
Following the exchange of multiple attacks, it was the team of Queensland that opened the scoring in the 19th minute of mark. Brent Garske was the player who managed to hit a powerful reverse flick at the backboard and earned go-ahead goal for
Queensland. In the later time, the Queensland obtained another three short corners but failed to avail them.
With three minutes remaining in the first half, Matthew McGregor managed a goal from the field and had it all even at one-all before going into the second period.
The second half was filled with quite slow-paced action. Both teams failed to show impressive passing in the thirty-five minutes of play and it seemed that they would have moved towards the conclusion with locking horns. But in the 54th minute,
Brady O’Shea of South Australia drove the ball inside the dangerous zone and slammed a low-flying shot into the backboard. It was the game-winning goal from SA and they earned first victory of the league at 2-1.
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