By JOSIP ZILIC
North Geelong Warriors went home with a point after copping a late equaliser in the dying minutes of their clash against Werribee last Sunday.
It was a promising performance made up with a dominant midfield performance and determined defending which will be needed again this weekend against Melbourne City who have scored 11 goals in their last three matches.
City suffered a 3-2 defeat against Whittlesea last week. Almost snatching a point after being two goals down, they levelled the match with two quick late goals, however Whittlesea scored in the dying seconds to win.
Against an improved Werribee the Warriors were composed and created chances with quick ball movement, but a physically intent Werribee defence were able to do enough to unsettle the forwards.
Juso Julardzija played in a less familiar centre midfield role in place of the injured Vito Cichello while Michael Anderson took a familiar wide spot for Rudi Saglam, both having immediate positive impact.
Kene Eze also returned to the line-up after several weeks out and his presence kept Werribee’s defence accountable.
The Warriors goal came just before the break, when Anderson and Nicholas Jurcic combined well to split the Werribee defence and provide Eze a straight forward tap in to open the ledger.
Throughout the second half the Warriors looked settled all over the park except for the forward third where with better decision making they could have punished Werribee several times.
The match entered the final minutes and Werribee pushed for a leveller coming close when a ball sent in by Jon Voulgaris was met by Werribee’s forwards and North’s defence, the resulting ball slipping wide of goal, however skipper Matt Townley came off second best with a large gash on top of his eye forcing him off the park and Anthony Banovac to take his place.
Just before full time a free kick given away by Nathan Long from 30 metres out, wide of goal. Voulgaris delivered an in-swinging ball into the box where the clash of bodies all over ran the ball for it to slip past untouched for the equaliser.
It goes to show how tight and even the West conference of NPL2 is and how millimetres and seconds tell the tale every week, there were plenty of positives to take away and the upcoming battle versus Melbourne City at Elcho Park will make for a terrific contest.
