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Southern United Youth narrowly defeated 2-1 by Team Wellington in opening game of season

Southern United Youth narrowly defeated 2-1 by Team Wellington in opening game of season

Holly Percival6 Oct 2019 - 21:46
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Last weekend saw the Youth team travel to the North Island to take on Team Wellington in their first match of the 2019 season.

United took the lead in the 28th minute as Cam Anderson calmly slotted the ball past Sims on the counter.

Team Wellington tried to find an equaliser before half time but United did well to hold off as both teams battled hard as the interval approached.

Into the second half and Team Wellington came out fighting. Ollie Pickering almost levelled the score after his attempt went just wide of the post.

But it was Gillion who made it 1-1 in the 59th minute as his shot deflected into the back of the net off of a United defender.

Both teams had ample opportunities to find the winning goal, but it wasn’t until the last minute of the four that were added on where Team Wellington snatched all three points from Southern United.

Josh Larking fired his shot hard at goal making it near enough impossible to stop, making it 2-1 to the hosts at full time.

Last season’s assistant coach Cam McPhail, now the Head Coach of the team, was pleased with his team’s performance despite narrowly missing out on bringing some points back to Dunedin.

He said: “It was a really hot day on the turf but the lads battled hard. In the second half Team Wellington really pushed our back line so we were looking to just defend well and counter hard.

“We had a couple of opportunities to take the game but the keeper pulled off some great saves. We defended really well but they were able to just counter in the last minute and it won them the game,” McPhail added.

“I told the lads the only thing we didn’t get today was the result. There are some things to work on but the team showed a massively positive start in terms of having the right attitude and working hard. I think the performance shows we can compete with the top teams in the league.”

Their next game is their first home game of the 2019 season where they face Auckland City on Saturday 12th October at 1pm.

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