In a huge day of football on Sunday (March 11) the Tuncurry Forster Tigers welcomed Kahibah FC from Newcastle, with teams from under 10’s through to first grade in action on the day.
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Around 200 visitors stayed in the region over the weekend, enjoying the races at Tuncurry on Saturday and then the football action on the Sunday.
Kahibah FC has made it their ambition tovjoin the NNSW Football NPL, the highest division in the federation, and it showed at times as extremely well drilled junior and senior teams put on an impressive display of football.
In most cases the Tigers junior sides, many of whom were playing together for the first time, matched it well, then ran out of steam in the hot conditions.
Some great individual performances were seen, with good signs for the Tigers juniors for the upcoming season.
It was the same in the first grade encounter, with Kahibah equalising just on the stroke of half time after falling behind to a bit of brilliance from the Tigers’ Mark Mallia.
Kahibah, who finished second in the new FM league last season, came out of the shed and found a few extra gears which the Tigers, together for the first time this year, couldn’t match after 10 minutes of the second half had elapsed.
At 1-3 down, Mallia and Blair Smith combined to produce a chance to edge the home side closer, but Smith’s low strike hit the keeper’s trailing leg to keep the Tigers out.
Kahibah added a few more to their total and ran out comfortable winners in their eighth trial match this year.
First team coach, Jason Coombes was happy with the effort shown by his players.
“We were always going to see very little possession against a very match-ready outfit like Kahibah, but it’s a good start for us and we’ll take a lot away from the experience,” Jason said.
Overall, the day was a great success for both clubs, with plans already in place for next year.