Comets surge clear at top of table
In this weekend’s women’s football, with the Goblins defaulting to Westland United, it was all eyes on the DP1 Comets to see if they could pick up the required number of points to finally put themselves out of reach at the top of the table. With a commanding 8-0 win over the Dragons, the Comets are now five points clear with only one round to go, so they will keep the Main Championship trophy for another year. Five goals from Jacinta Borer brought her recent tally to 14 goals in the last 5 games, and 16 for the season in total. With the Comets having to also play in the cup final, Borer will have the chance to push Amelia How, the previous run-away top scorer on 20 goals for the season, all the way in an attempt to regain the women’s top scorer for a second year running. One goal each from Sarah Burdon, Connie Duell and Georgia Goddard, along with yet another player of the day performance from Leslie Lamason, left the Dragons with little chance.
Next week’s games will wrap up the league season for the women. The Comets will face the Goblins in the 12 noon kick off, and the Dragons play Westland United in the 1.15pm kick off. Both the Comets and Westland United will want to keep up their momentum going into their cup final on Saturday 26th June.
In the men’s competition, Paroa made their first trip of the season north to Westport, where they had the opportunity to win the men’s league for themselves. As usual, Westport proved to be a hard team to beat on their own ground. Laurie Ward topped off his player of the day performance with a great solo effort in the first half that proved to be the only goal of the game. This is Paroa’s first loss of the whole season and the first time they have failed to score in a game, in what proved to be Westport Cos first clean sheet of the season. Zac Colligan earned Paroa’s player of the day. While the league is still firmly in Paroa’s own hands, it sends a warning that the men’s cup final, between these two teams on Saturday 26th August, will be a very close battle that neither team can take for granted. Westport Cos, being the home team today, were once again defending the Sarah Clearwater trophy. This win was not only a record breaking 9th defence in a row, but they have become the first team to hold the trophy for an entire season.
In the other game at Arthur Fong, Westland United took themselves off the bottom of the table with a 2-1 win over Marist. Jake Green got both goals for Westland, and despite pulling one back near the end, Marist were unable to find a second. Aiden Carpenter earned Westland’s player of the day, and Josh Raymond earned Marist’s player of the day.
As the league runs into the last two rounds of the season, there is still plenty to play for. Paroa need only one more point to effectively claim the main championship trophy, but they have two Greymouth rivalries to get through. Next week, they face Grey United at Arthur Fong at 12.30pm, before the 2.30pm game in which Marist face a Westport Cos side that will want to keep their faint hopes of a title alive.