CANALE CUP - 22ND JULY 2010, ACE BRENDALE FIELDS

What an evening of football in the northern suburbs!  The stands were packed and PaulyTV captured our first game in the Canale Cup Quarter Finals. We dreamt of playing the Rochedale Rovers in the semi-final round of the Cup. Only our old opponents, the Toowoomba Raiders stood in the way…

We needed our best game to overcome Toowoomba’s youthful exuberance, ensuring we stuck to our signature passing game, only moving forward when the timing was right. To our surprise the Toowoomba defence was left wanting and Robert Kidd’s first goal came in the second minute! From that point Toowoomba had no answers against our experienced attack by Jason Poggi (16th minute), Robert Kidd (17th minute) and Luke McKenna’s (19th minute) quick goals in succession. The ACE defence and midfield were sharp and controlled the game. In the 30th minute Luke McKenna sent in his second goal unopposed, leaving Toowoomba floundering.

At the half time break, we decided to treat the second half as a separate game to stay focussed and keep developing our game. We started Danny Flaskas (returning from injury), Chris Peever to the side with immediate effect, where Jason Poggi (60th minute) and Robert Kidd (68th minute) scored their second and third goals respectively, bringing the score to 7 to Nil. To finish off a stellar night, Brady Smith, playing his last game with the team to pursue university studies in the USA, scored the 8th goal of the night in the 76th minute with a valliant individual effort.

Great teamwork, referees and supporters helped take us to the semi-final clash with Rochdale. Our ACE supporters came from everywhere. It was terrific to see. Our supporters continued to contribute to the team wins and the boys really appreciated it. We also supported the Senior Women's team, who played their semi-final of the Women's Cup at Wolter Park.
 

By Alex S.