It was a tough run this week for your Cityzens, and we are not just talking about the scoreline for the 7s.
The Reserves welcomed back injured Senior player Nicky Tzevakos this week, who heralded his return with a goal. Unfortunately Middle Park's second team bested the squad in the second half. The second half also saw former Cityzen Mark Tompkins come on for the Parkers.
The Seniors faced off against another former Cityzen, Jamie Braddock who was anchoring the defense. Jack Buckley opened up the scoring but would need to go off a few minutes afterwards, having been hacked down. The physio reports that it looks like ligament damage, but is optimistic about his return. If this had been the only scare we would not have thought too much of it. But then Reid Bailey would go off in the break with a shoulder injury that left him in a sling. Marc Gavigan would leave in the second half with an ankle injury that looks more precautionary than anything, but unfortunately it meant Coach Bates had to use all his subs in ways he had not intended.
Michael Swinnerton would grab a second goal in the second half, and keeper AJ Oversby would be the victim of an unlucky deflection to give the visitors a life line but the game remained in our hands.
The 7 Division would also see injury with defender Josh Hurn coming off with another ankle injury. We wish that would explain the scoreline, but Dandenong South had four goals in the first half, which we could not manage to replicate in the full 90 minutes. Senior Coach Bates got our scoreline started with a nice bit of tackling by Nathan Di Curzio with the second. Rodney Wilson would tap in our third.
The 6 Division had a batter day, facing off against their old patrons, Old Scotch, making them question letting them go with a spectacular 5-2 scoreline. Luke Katic notched a hat-trick while Baylor Shoenburger-Smith and Nick Mountney putting in individual goals on the day. Well done lads!
