Despite playing one-third of their match against Oxley Vale Attunga with only 10 players East Armidale proved they can match it with the competition’s best when they drew with the reigning premiers.
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The side got off to a slow start when they hosted OVA on Saturday, conceding two goals in the opening stages before BJ Kliendienst’s double squared the game up.
Rhys Hackett scored early in the second half to put the home side in front but 10 minutes in East Armidale captain Trent Irwin was awarded a controversial red card and sent off for the remainder of the match.
“They managed get one goal back but we managed to hold off the draw,” club president Simon McLennan said.
“I thought with 10 men playing against the team that's been in the last 10 grand finals then they should have scored more than they probably did but we held them off pretty well.
“I think the whole team was a bit frustrated at the end of it knowing that we were probably the better team for three quarters of the match, it is always a tough one to take.”
McLennan said his young team stood up in defence when they were a player short.
“OVA are an older team than us, most of them have been around for that 10 years, and we're a much younger team and we went out with a game plan of just trying run them around, keep possession, making them really move to get the ball,” he said.
“You could see they knocked up after a while and we could play our game and make them move, that's where they couldn't match us.”
Easts head down the hill to Tamworth to take on North Companions this Saturday, who beat them 6-nil the last time they met in round two.
McLennan said they couldn’t form a full squad in the early matches of the season but he hoped this weekend’s game would be a different story.
“If we can hold possession and hold the ball the goals will definitely come for us,” he said.
“We are not a team that has to rush to try to score goals, we can just hold on and be patient and let the goals come when the opportunity arises.”