by Phoebe Rothfield

On a warm and sunny Saturday in May, The Altona WPL girls headed to Elgar Park to take on new-comers to the competition, Kew.

From the outset we knew this would be a tough game as both teams sat on the bottom of the ladder 0-4 and desperately needing a win. The whole game became a desperate mindset where all players showed gut and determination to try and propel their team ahead of the other.

The Altona girls opened up the scoring with a tidy goal from Altona veteran Steph Young mid-way through the first half after some tireless work from our defence, led by superstar Taz Brennan in goals, along with Caity Campbell and Raiders to slow down the fast-breaking Kew.

After some brilliant work with only one working hand, Bronte Kerley along with fellow centre stalwarts Kelsey Fox and Dan Schubach worked their magic in the centre to Nic Brown, who made her way along the boundary to find Phoebe Rothfield all alone on the back post to slot in the second goal of the day for the A’s. A much needed half-time whistle blew and the girls headed for cover to top up the fluids.

The Kew outfit came out firing in the second-half and Altona began to play to the standards of Kew and not our own game. The Kew girls eventually broke through our defence only trailing by one goal, 2-1 Altona’s way.

In the last few minutes, Kew pulled their goalkeeper from the field and opted to play with a kicking-back to try get numbers forward. Kew pushed but the A girls held strong coming away with 2-1 win after a tough first few weeks to the season.

The A girls take on Essendon this weekend at “home” with WPL at 3.30pm and WPLR at 5pm, so come along!

Altona 2 – 1 KEW

Goals: Phoebe Rothfield & Steph Sarantis