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Waugh Breaks University Hearts
A spectacular second half drive from Brisbane Strikers midfielder Damien Waugh was enough to earn his team a 1-0 win and see off the challenge from the University of Queensland in this afternoon's Premier League clash at St Lucia.
Waugh's sweet strike was all that separated the Brisbane Strikers from a gallant University of Queensland team as the visitors grabbed all three points in unconvincing fashion to leave the students pointless after five games.
Before the match, Brisbane Strikers goalkeeper Antony Hall had suggested that if the Strikers were unable to gain an early ascendancy in midfield they would endure a testing afternoon, and that Waugh, who was looking to atone for disappointing himself with his performance against Pine Rivers last weekend, would be a pivotal player for the Strikers. Hall could scarcely have imagined how prophetic his words would be.
This was a disjointed and slightly lethargic performance by the Strikers, who struggled for most of the match to cope with a spirited performance by the University side and a few issues that were perhaps of their own making.
The new-look midfield in which coach Bobby Hamilton gave starting roles to Matt Hornby, Ross Duncan and David Thomas, so as to rest Nathan Carloss, Stewart Drinkeld and Michael Butters, never really got to grips with proceedings in the first forty-five minutes. To make matters worse, the experienced Jamie Lowndes, whom Hamilton was relying upon (along with Waugh) to lend stability to the younger midfielders, was forced to limp off after thirty minutes with a knee injury.
University began the match well, getting forward with purpose. Within five minutes they were almost rewarded with a goal as Marty Sommerville chased down a through ball on the right side of the park and rounded Hall, only to fail to hit the target. Soon afterwards, a Matt Hughes shot struck the Strikers' woodwork and it became apparent that any thoughts the visitors had of coasting to a comfortable win were fanciful at best.
In the fifteenth minute the Strikers produced their first real chance when Di Losa gathered a pass just outside University's penalty area and spun around to whip a fierce shot against the underside of Boyd Kildey's crossbar. Unluckily for the big striker, the ball stayed out.
There were few clear-cut opportunities to either side for most of the first half as both defences held firm and restricted their opponents mostly to strikes from long distance. It was noticeable, however, that University were posing numerous problems down the right-hand side of the Strikers' midfield and defence. Here, Adam Webber and Duncan were struggling to get any kind of understanding going as Duncan, in particular, seemed to have his global positioning co-ordinates wrong.
Too often, the visitors turned the ball over cheaply, which meant that they spent very little time working in the danger zones of the opposition's half. Thomas, down the left, and Duncan down the right failed to gain any real traction against their full backs and Di Losa and his striking partner Russell Woodruffe were inevitably forced to work too deep to be any real threat to University's stoppers, Andrew Lamont and Mark Jensen.
It was during the Strikers' worst period of the match, while these problems were making themselves apparent, that Antony Hall was forced to make a couple of good saves - the first a good parry from a well-struck shot by Lance Wilson, the second a dive low at the feet of Somerville who had been put clean through on goal by Matt Hughes.
In the thirty-first minute, though, Waugh added a touch of quality to the Strikers' performance when, as his team worked the ball forward, he spotted Kildey just a few metres off his line and tried to chip the ball over the tall keeper. Kildey must have had his heart in his mouth as he was forced to backtrack desperately to tip out Waugh's effort which was dipping under the bar.
That was the last serious action of the first half, which ended with Strikers supporters wondering out loud if Hamilton would resort to his bench at the beginning of the second half.
The answer was a resounding "yes" as Hamilton reshuffled his line-up, bringing on Butters for Thomas and switching Duncan to Thomas's position on the left in order to accomodate Butters on the right.
These changes, perhaps assisted by a lively half-time inquisition, brought about a noticeable change in the tempo and fluency of the Strikers' game. Within minutes Kildey was forced into a good save from Woodruffe, followed by another four minutes later from Waugh as the Strikers began to make openings around the University penalty area.
Then Carloss, who had come on for Lowndes, found space to hit another shot from outside the penalty area which Kildey saved awkwardly with his chest. Minutes later, a flowing move involving Waugh, Carloss and Woodruffe finished with the young striker volleying over the top from about ten metres out.
The Strikers were now having their best spell of the match, but needed to capitalise on it to snuff out any thoughts the University players would have been harbouring of stealing all three points against what was becoming the run of play.
The Strikers got their breakthrough when Butters, as is becoming his custom, imposed himself upon the match at just the right moment. Collecting the ball in the sixty-ninth minute some forty metres out on the right, Butters slipped the ball past his marker and flew down the wing, turning the University defence around. Butters eventually squared the ball to Waugh, who first-timed it sweetly to send it spearing high inside Kildey's far post.
The jubilant Waugh ran to celebrate his goal in front of the visiting supporters, making sure the BSSA's scribe got a good look at the number 7 on his shirt.
University kept stubbornly at the task for the next ten minutes or so, and a determined run from the half-way line by Andy Oar almost produced dividends for him when he worked a one-two with Andrew Lamont and lobbed the return pass with the outside of his left foot over the advancing Hall. Unfortunately for Oar and the University team, it was also narrowly over Hall's crossbar.
By now, the University players were visibly tiring and in the final ten minutes the Strikers were able to pour forward. As the clock ran down, Waugh, Butters and substitute Drinkeld all missed the target when presented with excellent opportunities to score, and the visitors had to be satisfied with a win by the narrowest of margins.
It wasn't the prettiest of wins by the Brisbane Strikers, and in circumstances where a highly fancied team struggles to beat rank underdogs it can be tempting to suggest that the more fancied team was "dragged down" to the level of the opposition. However, that would be grossly unfair to the University side who produced some good passages of play and might have felt they were worth a draw.
Perhaps it was fitting, though, that the match was settled by a quality strike from Waugh, who was probably the best player on the park.
When asked after the match why he felt his team had struggled to impose itself, Waugh came up with a couple of contributing factors.
"We were a bit disorganised and gave the ball away a lot, which meant that we were continually tracking back", he said. "With the new partnerships (in midfield) our communication was lacking - there wasn't a lot of talking going on, and that is something we can work on in training".
Waugh also confirmed that visiting teams do not find the University team's home ground easy to play on - not because of the surface, which seems quite admirable, but because of the ground's dimensions.
"It is an extremely narrow field" he said. "It's long enough, but because it is narrow it congests things in the middle of the field, and we played to their advantage".
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