St John's under 9 Bees dusted off their trainers for a return to the futsal arena against Rose Hill Rovers.

Like recent weeks St John's were slow out of the blocks and Rose Hill scored the opening goal within seconds of the start. St John's found their feet and equalized shortly after when Jack took the ball confidently forward on the left then found Fergus who steered the ball home. Rose Hill seemed more confident in the small sided game. They had a couple of particularly skilful and confident players for example the left footed number 11, and were better at finding space and quick interchange of passes. They scored three goals in quick succession to take a commanding 4-1 lead. St John's were also confident coming forward and created several good chances but were thwarted by the brave Rose Hill goalkeeper. St John's had a great opportunity to score when they won a penalty but Roberto hit a powerful shot wide. Just prior to the break Luke turned beautifully on the half way line to put himself clear but the keeper narrowed the angle and Luke shot wide.

St John's hit back straight after the restart when Micah scored from the left hand side. Rose Hill then extended their lead with another goal to make it 5-2. The goals kept coming when Matvey battled well and tucked the ball home in the centre. Rose Hill scored their sixth goal before St John's scored again when Fergus beat his man on the right hand side and crossed into the middle where Matvey was waiting to guide the ball home. Just before the break Rose Hill scored again to make it 7-4 when they caught St John's off-guard with a goal on the counter attack.

The fine football continued in the final third with both teams demonstrating their close control and skills with stop hop and Maradona turns on show. Shortly after the restart Rose Hill scored their eighth goal. St John's then responded with another goal when Luke poked the ball past the Rose Hill defender into Fergus' path who cleverly turned it past the onrushing keeper. Fergus then capped a confident and skilful display with another goal to bring up his hat-trick. Rose Hill continued to create several great chances but poor finishing and fine goalkeeping by Sam kept them at bay. They were becoming rattled and St John's freshness with more substitutes began to tell. Victor enjoying a chance to shine up front hit the post before scoring. Luke then scored a well deserved goal to complete a wonderful comeback and earn a 8-8 draw.

St John's demonstrated massive improvement since their last game of futsal and should be proud of their efforts to earn the draw.
Congratulations to Matvey for the man of the match award for two well taken goals.

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