Weston Bears Football Club -

The Bears were back at Thomas and Coffey Park against Hamilton Olympic after 3 weeks away on the road. In this time the Bears have continued the great run of results in both the League and Solo Cup competitions. The run has included a fantastic 4-1 win over the side that handed the Bears a touch up in last season's Grand Final, Edgeworth Eagles on Tuesday night. The Edgeworth Match was played in freezing and slippery conditions at the Eagles home ground but it didn't hinder the Bears as they went on to rack up a dominating win. This put them in the box seat to leap frog both Hamilton Olympic and Lake Macquarie to the top of NBN State League Ladder with a game still in hand over both sides.

In recent times the Bears have dominated the game results against Olympic but it was Olympic who had the first real chance of the game when they should have scored in the 23rd min. The fast pace of the match meant that the match was end to end football and 4 mins later Bears Midfielder Rob MacBeth was left ruing a fantastic chance after his header from close range failed to hit the target.

Rob MacBeth was in the thick of the game and he was extremely unlucky not to find the net in the 34th min. MacBeth hit a scud from 25mts out that was flying towards the top right handle corner of the Olympic goal until the Olympic keeper made a fantastic finger tip save to deny the Bears the lead. Although the Bears had the better of play in the back end of the first half Olympic looked to have snatched the lead when they beat Bears keeper Tim Pratt in the 43rd min but fortunately for the Bears Carl Thornton got his positioning perfect and he headed off the line to keep the scores at 0-0 till half time.

The start of the second half was looking to be going the way of Olympics until the Bears 2 inform strikers launched a blitzkrieg that saw them snatch the game with 2 goals in the space of 2mins. The first goal came in the 52nd min through Jamie Subat who did plenty of work before finding himself with only the keeper to beat. Subat calmly placed his angled shot under the Olympic keeper and into the net. Mick Ryan made it 5 goals in 3 games since his return from injury when he scored the 2nd Bears goal in the 54th min. Ryan gained the ball after Mick Holt did well to spot the keeper off his line and put his attempted to chip towards goal. Holts chip struck the centre of the crossbar and deflected back into play before Mick Ryan regained the ball and drilled his low shot past the keeper for the Bears to lead 2-0.

Both sides had further chances on goal with the Bears having a late goal saved off the line by an Olympic defender but the score remained at 2-0 for the remainder the match. The win means that the Bears leapfrog Hamilton Olympic into top spot of the League Ladder and if other weekend results go their way the side could be 2 points clear at the top with a game still in hand over the 2 nearest sides.

Both the lower grades had disappointing results with both going down  to the score of 1-3.

The Bears travel to South Cardiff's Ullinga Oval for their next round match. South Cardiff are the only side to defeat the Bears this season in the first round upset at Thomas and Coffey Park so the players will be keen to get something from the match at a ground that is equally unfriendly to players and supporters alike.

C'MON YOU BEARS!!!!!!!!!

Freezing cold weather at Edgeworth and an unfamiliar Tuesday night match were 2 of the big hurdles the Bears had to get over in order to take the 3 points in last season's Grand Final rematch against Edgeworth Eagles.

Edgeworth started the match the better of the 2 sides and it took until the 10th min for the Bears to find their feet and start knocking the ball around and hold possession.

With the Bears now taking more control of the match, Edgeworth appeared to resort to a more physical style of play that at times bordered more towards thuggery than football. This played into the hands of the Bears set piece specialist when in the 36th min he whipped a perfectly placed Free Kick from wide on the right to find the head of Mick Ryan. Ryan made no mistake as he hammered his header past the Edgeworth keeper for a well deserved 1-0 lead.

Jamie Subat looked certain to score in the 42nd min when he was played in for a 1 on 1 with the Edgeworth keeper only to slip slightly in the heavy dewy conditions and play the ball harmlessly back to the keeper. Subat didn't have to wait long to make amends with another chance in the 45th min, this time he made no mistake when he pounced on an Edgeworth defensive error and put the ball past the keeper with a well taken chip from a difficult position to send the Bears to the break with a handy 2-0 lead.

Edgeworth came from the sheds and like in the first half they dominated the early play and caused plenty of headaches for the Bears Defence who led by Club Captain Chris Cousins were doing extremely well to keep them out. The travelling Bears support showed their disgust to the out of positioned linesman in the 51st min after an unbelievable mistake from the match officials allowed Edgeworth back into the game. The Edgeworth goal came from a through ball that played 2 Edgeworth attackers onto goal, the only problem was that each player was at least 4mts off side at the time the ball was delivered. This left the Bears defenders no chance to run down the attackers and they calmly slotted the ball past Bears keeper Tim Pratt to peg the score back to 2-1.

Mick Ryan has been in great form in the 2 games since returning from the serious knee injury that put him out of the game for the past 2 months and in the 56th min his hard work was rewarded with a brace after he made a run from just inside his own half before putting the ball past the advancing Edgeworth keeper to restore the Bears 2 goal advantage at 3-1.

Mick Ryan was given a well earned rest on the hour mark and the pocket dynamite Joel "Sparra" Page was put into the game. Page made an instant impact on the match and in the 66th min he made a strong run at the wide defence before giving a great square ball for the Bears to smash the shot home and make the score 4-1.

The score remained at 4-1. The Bears have now put themselves in the box seat to take the competition lead but unfortunately the match official somewhat lost control of this match with the number of yellow cards handed out going into double figures. Add to that a late red card for an Edgeworth defender and it's lucky that both sides ended the game injury free.

U/23's are still searching for their first win of the season after going down 3-1 while the U/19's were left ruing a missed penalty when they drew 1-1.

Next game the Bears are back on home soil at Thomas and Coffey Park to take on current League leaders Hamilton Olympic. The Bears have had the wood on Olympic in recent seasons and considering a Bears win would put them 2 points clear with a game in hand, everything is pointing to a great game.

Kick Off Times :

Youth League 2:30 pm, U/23's 4:15pm and First Grade 6:00pm.

C'MON YOU BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!