Great Southern Soccer Association senior men’s team fall short in return to representative colours

Forrestfield United Football Club made a successful trip to Albany, defeating the Great Southern Soccer Association senior men’s representative side at Centennial Stadium on Saturday. In front of a healthy crowd the State league outfit took on a GSSA squad of 16 from clubs in the local association, with the match played in great spirit despite five yellow cards being handed out in a physical contest. It was the first time in eight years the GSSA had fielded a senior men’s representative side, but they were unable to beat Forrestfield. Two first-half goals from Forrestfield helped them secure the 3-2 result. Jordan Lyall was able to get on the end of a beautifully weighted ball over the top of the defence to net the first goal for Forrestfield inside the first 10 minutes. Forrestfield continued to attack with the aid of a strong breeze and had three shots narrowly miss midway through the first half. GSSA goalie Daniel Siemiginowski executed a great save to prevent Forrestfield from extending their margin, only for the visitors to gather the ball again and find the back of the net off the boot of Tarek Atta to go 2-0 up nearing half-time. In the opening 45 minutes, GSSA struggled up front and had their first real opportunity to score in the dying stages. Ryan Francis hit the top bar for Forrestfield 15 minutes into the second period before Nathan Griffiths almost pulled off an amazing free kick for GSSA, hitting the top bar just moments later. Kyle Taylor intercepted a switch from Forrestfield and found the back of the net from his left boot to reduce the margin to one goal for GSSA. Amro Atta, however, hit back moments later to ensure Forrestfield maintained a two-goal advantage. Taylor again intercepted a pass and put the ball in the path of Andrew Oboh, who converted to get the margin back to one in the last 10 minutes of the game. GSSA fought hard in the final minutes to level the scores but were unable to add another goal as the impressive Forrestfield held on.