Soccer: Rocky fight for draw

Rockingham City fought back from a two-goal deficit to record their second draw for the season against Gosnells at Lark Hill on Saturday.

Hosting a strong Gosnells City side, Rocky started the game well and had two good chances early on.

But they then suffered a double setback as Gosnells scored two counter-attacking goals in a 10-minute spell — their first chances of the game.

Playing against a strong wind, Rocky came back well and deservedly got a goal right on half-time.

From a free kick on the edge of the box, centre forward Craig Tone fooled the defence with a delicate chip to captain Jay Bonser, who calmly chested down for Daniel Macklin to volley into the net.

Rocky threw everything they had at Gosnells in the second half, but it looked as if they would remain frustrated as the Gosnells goalkeeper made some good saves and two goalmouth scrambles resulted in clearances off the line.

Rockingham substitutes Roy Hissey and Tommy Downes had other ideas, however, and with 10 minutes to play the Gosnells goalkeeper was rightly penalised for timewasting, resulting in an indirect free kick to Rocky 10 yards out.

With the Gosnells players still protesting, quick-thinking Hissey grabbed the ball and took a quick free kick to Downes who took one touch, then drilled home the ball, delighting the sizeable home crowd.

From then on it was one-way traffic as Rockingham pressed for a winner. Attack after attack had the crowd on the edges of their seats, but Gosnells held on and a thoroughly entertaining game finished 2-2.

Rockingham coach Steve Robinson said he was pleased with the outcome.

‘‘I was disappointed with the goals weconceded, but in the second half the players responded exactly as we asked them to and showed a lot of character to come back like that,’’ he said.

‘‘In the end, I thinkwe did enough to win the game, butweare still unbeaten and we are confident of getting our first win against Canning next week.’’