The girls were once again grateful for the assistance of their SL1 counterparts enabling them to field a full complement of players.

The match was a hard fought, competitive one from the opening whistle with play swinging from end to end as both sides sought to gain the upper hand.

It was Belsouth who opened the scoring after 20 minutes when a cross from Belsouth’s left flank was allowed to pass across the face of the goal to an unmarked Belsouth forward who had the easiest of tasks to tuck the ball into the net from just six metres.

Goulburn soon struck back when the quicksilver Charmaine Schmalz latched onto a neat through pass from Maddy Cranston.

From just inside Belsouth’s half she danced past three defenders and as the keeper advanced, pushed the ball across the goal for the onrushing Ellyn Oliver to finish from close range.

Just eight minutes later Belsouth regained the lead courtesy of a free kick 20m out from the Strikers goal, an unstoppable drive that cannoned off the underside of the crossbar and into the net.

With halftime approaching the Strikers pushed forward in their search for a second equaliser but managed to squander three gilt edged chances before the break.

When play resumed Belsouth seized the early initiative, putting the Strikers defence under pressure for extended periods.

Around mid term the pressure paid off and Belsouth scored a third following a defensive error from a corner.

Down 3-1, Strikers rallied and it was Belsouth’s turn to defend as Strikers threw players forward in search of a reply but as in the first half they were let down by a lack of finishing power despite creating a number of golden opportunities to reduce the deficit.

And that was the difference between the two sides. Both had a similar amount of opportunities but Belsouth made their’s count.

Next week the girls hit the road again to Harrison in Canberra’s north where they take on the well performed ADFA side.

In between the girls will be working on shoring up a leaky defence and making better use of the few opportunities that ADFA may concede.