By Ewen McRae
Gisborne staged a remarkable late comeback to take a point from its top-of-the-table state league 5 soccer clash with Westside Strikers on Saturday.
Trailing by three goals with less than 20 minutes remaining, Gisborne came to life to draw level and had a late shot to take the win, forcing a good save from the Strikers keeper.
While his side didn’t take the full points, Gisborne coach Danny Ciantar said the comeback against the unbeaten competition benchmark made the result feel like a win.
“We take huge confidence from that,” Ciantar said. “The boys were absolutely buzzing after the game, really happy with their effort and their desire and energy throughout the 90 minutes. I take my hat off to the players for their efforts across the whole game.
“This is only going to put us in good stead for the next eight games, and to be quite honest I can’t see any other sides taking points off us.”
Westside started the game like a team yet to drop a game, winning early opportunities to score before Jordan Borg was able to head home the opener on the far post from a corner in the ninth minute.
Both teams had periods of dominance through the rest of the opening half, but neither was able to find the back of the net as the home side took its lead into the break.
Westside again started well in the second half, with Borg getting his second in the 50th minute, after a defensive error from Gisborne, and seemingly sealing the win soon after with a strike to complete his hat-trick.
From there the game began to turn in Gisborne’s favour, with substitutions, tactical shifts and an attacking mindset reaping rewards. Jake McIntyre opened the scoring for the visitors after some good build-up play in the 78th minute, and soon after it was 3-2 as Charles Eastwood got on the scoresheet.
Gisborne closed down the space for the Strikers’ defenders in the closing stages.
When McIntyre bagged his second in the 89th minute, it was Gisborne that looked the better side.
If not for the late save it could have been a win for the ages, but Ciantar said taking a point off the ladder leader put his side in a good place in the run towards the end of the season.
“At the end of the day, I thought we played really well and were probably unlucky not to win the game,” he said.
“I believe we can go all the way, and both us and the Strikers should probably get promoted. We’ve now got eight games to go to prove
that.”
