The open girls Football team played in the North Coast Final of the statewide Football Competition at Connell Park on Friday, June 16.
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To enable the game to go ahead a group of volunteers worked quickly prior to the game to mow the field and mark the lines after all the wet weather. So a special thank you to Chris Schofield, Mick Klipin, Warren Alford and Moshik Goffer.
From the start of the game the Bellingen girls dominated displaying superior passing skills to maintain possession and set up opportunities.
Despite these opportunities they failed to finish which left the half time score at 0-0.
The mid field were playing particularly well with Katie Thorn, Willow Neal and Sophie Boyd showing how well the young players could work with the more experienced players. The only times they looked vulnerable were on the fast breaks following one of their attacking raids.
After halftime the girls continued their domination and finally got a well-deserved goal in the back of the net by Jordan Healy. The girls were still playing strongly when one of the key defenders, Zali Rees was injured and had to leave the field.
Despite this the girls continued to dominate play and set up many opportunities but no conversions. As time continued the game went in to a couple of minutes injury time and with virtually no time on the clock a simple pass back to the keeper caused an error and a corner was conceded.
The corner was taken with the clock ticking and the ball went in near post and full time was called.
This meant the game went into sudden death extra time which was so disappointing when the girls already deserved to win.
Extra time started and both teams had opportunities but most of them were to Bellingen.
Then with only two minutes to go a cross by Maclean saw the ball go in the net touched on by one of their players. It seemed unbelievable that the game was lost – but such is the game of football.
No one could be disappointed with the way they played or the quality of the game – the only disappointment came with the result.