A victory that would have sent an emphatic message to the Premier football league went begging on Sunday when the Dunsborough Towners wasted a stream of second-half chances to succumb 1-0 loss to Australind at the Dunsborough Recreation Oval.

Despite this setback Dunsborough’s improvement to the season’s halfway mark has been spectacular and the manner of their defeat suggests they could well be in the championship mix at the end of the season.

Australind 1 beat Dunsborough 0

A victory that would have sent an emphatic message to the Premier football league went begging on Sunday when the Dunsborough Towners wasted a stream of second-half chances to succumb 1-0 loss to Australind at the Dunsborough Recreation Oval.

Despite this setback Dunsborough’s improvement to the season’s halfway mark has been spectacular and the manner of their defeat suggests they could well be in the championship mix at the end of the season.

In the past three weeks the Towners have beaten Busselton and Bunbury and deserved at least a share of the spoils against second-placed Australind.

Just before the start word was received that young Jake Smith was sick and wasn’t available, tenacious tackling Dion Schildmann had called off during the week with injury and John Joyce has been suspended for two weeks.

Dunsborough’s coach Geoff Holt was, therefore, forced to make late position changes and draft players who had appeared in the earlier reserve’s match onto the substitute’s bench.

As it was striker Joe Pregelj, suffering from a virus and having played most of the reserve game, was press-ganged to start in a defensive midfield role to be replaced at half-time by Niel Muckles who had played a “man of the match” role in the reserves.

From the start both sides attacked at every opportunity with both defences standing firm and goalkeepers Josh Watt (Dunsborough) and Luke Utterson (Australind) making some wonderful saves including a remarkable effort by Utterson to a Holt hot shot in the 26th minute.

One of the astute moves was using Kieran Smith, normally a winger, in defence with his speed to nullify the dangerous Darko Savic , a task he did to perfection.

But there were times, especially in the second-half when Smith ventured up field with dangerous weaving runs that caused Australind headaches to counter.

It was not until 40th minute that the breakthrough came following a corner and a goalmouth scramble that ended with Chris Normington getting his boot to a high ball and tipping it home.

The Towners should have been level two minutes later when both Stuart Gidley and Graeme Copeman failed with close range chances to a Holt cross and a minute later Copeman was just wide with a powerful ground shot.

The second-half was a litany of wasted opportunities by Dunsborough with some from inside the six yard box with an open goal beckoning.

To be fair Australind had their chances as well hitting the bar with a snap shot and forcing Watt to a number of courageous reflex saves.

Dunsborough’s ‘man of the match” midfielder Joe Peachey, making his first full team debut, brought out the best in Utterson with a 30 metre pile driver that seemed certain to score until somehow he got his fingers to the ball that dribbling over the bar.

In the closing minutes the Towners saw two shots cleared off the line and a Gidley header at an open goal from close range fly over the bar.

At the start of the season Dunsborough beat Bunbury Dynamo 8-1 in whi9ch everything turned to gold.

On this occasion the Towners couldn’t buy a goal, an inconsistency that needs to be addressed if they are to realise their ambition of making the top four or better.

“Again we played well only to let ourselves down, but I feel we are ready for the challenges the second-half will bring,” said Holt after the game.

“If we can create the kind of chances that appeared today then hopefully on another day we will put them away”.



Dunsborough line-up:

Josh Watt, Terry McBride, Cid Richards, Jake Thompson, Kieran Smith, Joe Pregelj, Richard Olsen,  Joe Peachey, Stuart Gidley, Graeme Copeman, Geoff Holt. Substitutes: Brent Hillyard, Niel Muckles, Troy Lanigan.

Man of the match: Joe Peachey.