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IT WAS a great turnout on a bitter cold day for scores of under-9s future soccer stars at the Daylesford Hepburn Soccer Club.
The teams battled it out in a number of close games with several young players showing sheer determination and skill improvement.
These youngsters, in such large numbers, show promising signs for the future of soccer in Daylesford.
The under-11s couldn’t reproduce their brilliant form against Creswick last week, losing 4-1 to a strong Ballarat White team in their penultimate game of the season.
Even a full squad could not match the formidable opposition on the day, despite some hard work from the players.
Mitchel Vendy narrowly missed two well-produced opportunities and Jonas Paar scored the only goal for the side.
Declan Murnane, Lachlan Sim and Joe Vivian doggedly fended off many opposition attacks supported by Rennie Saunders and Freya Duffy, while Sachin Singaram, Ben English, Taron Malter and Rohan Singaram put in admirable efforts on the wings and in midfield.
This score line does show a vastly improved Daylesford team against one of the strongest, if not the strongest, teams in the league.
In the under-13s Daylesford’s hopes for a close-fought game to the end were caught off-guard in a game that could have been closer at Vic Park against Buninyong, placed just above Daylesford on the ladder.
The first half saw relentless attack by Daylesford’s midfield and strikers, but Buninyong’s defence prevailed, taking the ball back with agility and speed that caught Daylesford off guard and resulted in Buninyong goals.
Daylesford’s only goal was scored after a dashing run and very fair pass from Ceilidh to Santino, who popped the ball gently into the net.
The defence battled the ongoing attack from Buninyong to no avail.
Hopes of a closer game were dashed with the final score line of 4-1 to Buninyong.
The Daylesford seniors again lost an unlosable game, this time to third last-placed Horsham, 2- 1, on Sunday at home.
Horsham had a happy three-hour drive home, after knocking off second-placed Daylesford, and will wonder if God was on their side, with Daylesford missing at least 20 chances to win the match.
The game started well with Dragi Koleski putting home a shot from close range, after some good work from David Hackenburger and Zoran Drogriski.
What followed was not pretty, as Daylesford missed half-a-dozen chances in a row to extend the lead to 2-0 before half-time.
Top scorer Abdel Bennani came perilously close with a cheeky lob over the keeper, after some good crosses out wide from ex-Barcelona winger Ivan Carter.
But the fairytale wasn’t to be, with Horsham scoring a goal before half-time, with its first kick of the match straight through the middle.
It broke the hearts of fans and players, with half-time a sober and sombre affair.
The second half was again all Daylesford’s, with the statistician counting the possession count at 95 percent to Daylesford, including 15 shots at goal in the second half for Daylesford.
But you wouldn’t read about it, Horsham scored a second goal, to make the score 2-1, after Harry Robb blasted over the bar from 90 centimetres out, and Bennani, Mehdi, Murray Phelan and Koleski all went close to scoring.
The midfield, notably absent at times, did its best, and defence had better games, but catches win matches, and the score should have been 6-2 at worst.
This places Daylesford in third place, still in finals contention, but out of the top two, and no second chance.
The final game of the season is next Sunday at Vic Park, Daylesford, at 12pm.