THE Strikers were faster, more skillful, but more importantly - hungrier for success as they dominated their way to grand-final success.
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Their 3-1 win over the UC Pumas in the ACT State League Three final at the Hawker Football Centre capped off what has been an outstanding season for the Goulburn side.
The Strikers dominated the game from start to finish.
“It’s unbelievable because it’s the culmination of a hard slog and a hard season,” an ecstatic Strikers coach Robin Caulfield said after the victory.
“We’ve been through some thick times and some thin times but we got it alright today and we got it where it mattered.”
The Strikers set the tone for the day early, when Sam Taylor capitalised on a Puma defensive error to put Goulburn up within the first five minutes.
Their first half dominance continued when goal machine Brody Willis showed his class, netting a superb shot off his non-dominant right foot from just inside the 12 yard line.
It put the Strikers 2-0 up going into the half-time break.
“I think we came out with more intensity and more hunger than them today,” club captain David Albrighton said.
“We just wanted the game the more then they did in the end, and that’s really what stood us up and our first half performance really won it for us.”
It got better for Goulburn in the secondhalf when a Willis set-play free kick saw Daniel McLaughlan pounce on a goalkeeper deflection to put the Strikers we well and truly up at 3-0.
With Goulburn running away with the match, frustrations then flared with a second- half scuffle.
Strikers coach Robin Caulfield was sent from the sidelines and was forced to watch the rest of the game from the stands for talking back to a referee. Tensions led to the Pumas getting on the board through a penalty kick, but it was too little too late.
“I thought the whole team performed outstanding,” Caulfield said.
“I empathise the word team, because that’s what we’re all about. We spoke in the dressing rooms before we came out that a champion team always beats a team of champions if you know what I mean. So playing together as a team that’s what it’s all about.”
Match day captain Robbie Dorsett was one who led by example the whole day.
“They played hard and it got rough for a stage there, but it showed everyone has passion and everyone cares,” he told the Post after the game.
For the UC Pumas, the early defensive error that put their side down 1-0 was the tell tail sign for the rest of the day.
“We gifted them a goal and it set the tone for the whole game,” Pumas coach Adriano Di Crescenzo told the Post.
“I think they pressed us in the right areas for us to turn over the ball over and then they got cheap ball from our mistakes by turning it over from the backs.
“I don’t think we completed too many passes from the back and that was due to their pressure. But it was well deserved by Goulburn. They were just too good today.
Striker 3 defeated UC Pumas 1.
Goal scorers: Sam Taylor, Brody Willis, Daniel McLaughlan.