Purely from looking at the ladder, it would have seemed a tall order for Southern United to win against third placed Essendon. In their previous encounter Essendon took the points (4-1) comfortably at Farm Road. This time, the Strikers travelled to Bomber land on a cool and windy afternoon for the 3.30 pm fixture.

Jesse Workman was nursing an injured hamstring and unavailable but fortunately, Matt L’Houillier travelled to NZ and back within six days to make the team. Essendon took the initiative and forced three PC’s in eight minutes. They were unable to score from these. However, our lads showed a familiar determination and Ben Hughes stepped up with a welcome field goal in the 11th minute. In the last two minutes of the first half, Rowan Yeo turned on his magic with another field goal to send us into the break with a 2 – 0 cushion.

Neither team let up on pressure in mid-field throughout the match with the turn-over rate blowing out remarkably over the 70 minutes. Essendon did not make the most of their opportunities (12 PC’s for the game) although much of the credit for this must go to the evergreen David Hammond who starred in goals – again! The Strikers had no penalty corners at all, a most unusual feature. In fact, they only earned one in the past two matches – and that one was successful.

Essendon is a very good team and their persistence was rewarded with a field goal about eight minutes into the second term. However, the jubilant visiting Strikers held on and took the points home with a 2 – 1 result.

Goals:

Ben Hughes (FG 11m) Rowan Yeo (FG 32m)

Result: Southern United 2 – defeated Essendon 1