Halfway Review

It's been an interesting first half of the season.

The league has split into two, with the top five breaking away with a six point gap to 6th place. North Caulfield have won eight of their nine games, their only defeat coming at the hands of Doncaster Rovers at Anderson Park. They have only conceded 11 goals, four of them in the Rovers game.

From Rovers point of view, that game was the highlight. Being 2-1 down at half-time, fighting back for a 3-2 lead, being pegged back to 3-3 and then scoring the winner in the dying seconds showed great character. Karl Pimlott's goal at the end summed the game up. His first shot was saved by the keeper, he had a second shot blocked on the line and slid in determinedly to push the ball home beating the keeper to the ball.

The most disappointing game was the 4-2 defeat at home to Ashburton. It was definitely a winnable game and a combination of poor finishing and slack defending led to the result. It was a big lesson to the players and they certainly improved from it.

The best side we played was Knox City. They played the best football and stopped us from playing by working hard and closing the ball down quickly. The biggest surprise was how North Caulfield had won all but one game. They were a good side, but I didn't think they were that far ahead of the others.

For the second half of the season, Rovers would be looking realistically at a top two or three place so would be looking for some consistency to add to their never-say-die attitude.