Central Coast Football’s annual North vs South Premier League All Stars exhibition match was held recently, with the northern team taking women’s honours and the southern team victorious in the men’s game.
All-star teams are selected from all the clubs in the region to battle it out for top honours.
The 2024 edition of the women’s contest welcomed back head coaches Gab Blanch of Terrigal who took charge of the North side and Jorge Chavez of East Gosford who took the reins of South, both for the second consecutive year.
After seeing defeat last year 3-1, North started the game with determination.
It took them only 40 seconds to have their first chance at a goal with Killarney’s Mellisa Young finding herself free inside the box with the ball at her feet.
But she scuffed her shot wide.
After five minutes South looked to have grabbed the opening goal of the game when a free kick from Annika Hansen looked goal-bound only for the ball to fly inches over the crossbar.
North continued to pressure the South backline with shots from Tas Gribbin and Lily Brooks but goalkeeper Ash Meyer was able to protect her goal.
Mellisa Young continued to find herself in behind the South defence but was unable to get past the brilliant goalkeeping of Ash Meyer who kept her side in the contest time and time again.
It wasn’t until 36 minutes into the contest that the game saw its opening goal.
A cross from out wide on the right found Mellisa Young open on the edge as she took one touch and then perfectly placed the ball into the bottom corner for the North, leaving the opposition goalie with no chance.
North captain Lily Brooks thought she had doubled the advantage for her side as the ball fell to her outside the box after a corner but she was denied by the crossbar.
The second stanza saw South make some personnel changes as they searched for an equaliser.
But North grabbed the game’s second goal just five minutes into the second half as Lily Brooks played a perfect through ball to Mellisa Young who clinically finished one-on-one to secure her brace and double North’s lead to 2-0.
A determined South team, led by captain Jess Dominello, looked to find their way back into the contest.
Dominello looked extremely dangerous whenever going forward with the ball at her feet but was lacking the final product when shooting at goal.
South eventually got their opening goal when Helaina Wellington got herself into space on the right flank and was able to find Dominello open in the box; she emphatically finished her shot past Mackenzie Walker to take the deficit back to one goal.
The final 20 minutes saw momentum well on South’s side.
Grace Bryant was doing her best, making surging runs from the midfield and linking with her South attackers as she almost unlocked the North defence.
But a resilient North side held on to their slender lead to claim a 2-1 victory.
In the men’s game, a Jack Ellwood goal saw South, under the guidance of Matt Page, maintain a clean sheet to avenge their loss last season.
It was a cagey start to the contest as both teams looked to find their feet while getting used to playing a new system with new teammates.
2023 MPL Player of the Year Jacob Lepre had the first real chance of the fixture as he was able to beat multiple North defenders before placing a shot just wide of the target.
South striker Aidan Bastick found himself on the end of a Jackson Carr cross in the early stages of the game but was unable to steer the ball towards the goal as South once again troubled the backline of the North side.
Midfield general Matthew Johnson found himself in space and was able to play a pinpoint cross to Conor Fitzpatrick who headed just wide of the target for North’s best chance of the opening period.
South Midfield duo Noah Ajala and Jacob Lepre linked-up as Lepre was able to perfectly place the ball into the path of winger Matt Jacobson, who found himself one-on-one with North’s goalkeeper Steven Grimmitt.
Jacobsen was able to beat Grimmitt, but his effort ricocheted off the post to deny the inaugural goal of the game.
South looked the more dangerous when going forward and were constantly troubling the North goal, but Grimmitt stood his ground and was able to save multiple goal-scoring opportunities as the game remained in the balance after the opening 45 minutes.
South were awarded multiple set pieces in the early stages of the second half.
The first corner fell to the feet of Jack Jenkins who forced substitute Declan Drake to make a tremendous save just minutes into his appearance.
From the following corner, another dangerous delivered ball was not dealt with by the North defence with Jack Ellwood finally giving South a crucial 1-0 lead.
The addition of East Gosford’s Charlie Entwistle and Lucas Dominello to the South side saw an influx of energy and pace as they searched for a second goal.
A beautiful cross from Charlie Polson found Lucas Dominello alone at the back stick but his header on goal was magnificently stopped by Declan Drake who kept North in the contest.
North started to work their way back into the game.
Jose Atayde from Budgewoi had multiple shots on goal but was unable to get past the resilient Jack Arigho who was in goal for South.
North looked like they finally found their equaliser with just 10 minutes to go as Tristan Bellemore did well down the left flank and found the run of Logan Moore who only had Arigho in his path
2023 MPL Golden Boot winner Moore looked to place the ball past the oncoming keeper, but Arigho positioned himself well and was able to produce the save of the game with his foot.
The final few minutes saw the game open up at each end as both sides had good chances on goal, but wayward finishing saw the contest finish 1-0 to South.