South creates chance for history

September 15 2009

Shepparton News

Shepparton South has qualified for its first ever women's Goulburn North East Football Association grand final after a 1-0 win against Tatura in the preliminary final at Numurkah on Sunday.

The Southerners will take on Shepparton United on Sunday in a rematch of the tightly contested qualifying final won by the Blues a week ago.

Maddy McGuffie was the heroine for South after the forward made up for a first-half penalty miss by scoring the match-winning goal.

Tatura goalkeeper Lucy Ciancio saved McGuffie's first-half penalty, but was not able to block the South striker's effort latching onto a cross with five minutes remaining.

The Ibises had not scored against South in the past three meetings between them and again were unable to score, with a less-thanperfect surface at Numurkah proving a hazard for both teams.

"We created a lot of chances, two that bounced off the crossbar," South coach Ralph Giuliani said.

"We looked at all those chances and felt like we'd given up a gift and had to go and win it the hard way."

Giuliani said his team had learnt a lesson from its qualifying final loss to Shepparton United by making an advantage in general play count on the scoreboard.

"I thought the midfield had control and out wide we looked dangerous," he said.

"Beth (Kilmartin) was on top at sweeper, KB (Katie Baker) did her usual job on Rosemary Scrimizzi and Merve (Bolat) didn't have the legs against Espie (Danielle Espagne)."

South had previously lost two preliminary finals to Tatura in 2006 and 2007 to deny it a first ever grand final appearance.

"We're under no illusions, United's a very experienced side," Giuliani said.