Coach proud of teens as City salvage draw

Rockingham City Football played out a 1-1 draw with Canning City at Lark Hill last Saturday, with the club fielding one of its youngest sides ever.

City coach Rob Crerar was faced with a big selection headache in the build-up to the match, with 16 senior players unavailable through a combination of injury, travel, work and suspension.

As a result eight teenagers were called up to the squad, with six of them starting the match.

Despite dominating throughout, Rockingham found themselves behind first when Canning raced out of the blocks after half time to take the lead.

Rockingham rallied and found a late equaliser when substitute Hilario Nunes headed home a fine goal from Jony Araya’s cross.

Crerar said while he wasn’t thrilled with the result, his young players stood up well to the test.

“Credit to the young boys that came in — they’ve done really well and I couldn’t be prouder of them,” he said.

“To have eight teenagers involved … it wasn’t the result that we wanted but it was a really good performance.”

Jason Pottier, Sean Brady and Blake Sokolowski were the stand outs for Rockingham on an afternoon when a number of big sides around them on the table dropped points. Rockingham has a bye this weekend before they return to action at home to Joondalup City on July 29.

“We’ve got the week off and then we have 10 senior players back for the Joondalup game,”

“They’ll find it hard to get their spots back but obviously they are an important part of the squad.

“We’re looking to finish the season strongly to see how close we can get to the top.”