Saturday February 17, was the culmination of much hard work from coaches players and the STU FC committee and our junior teams were the first to pull on the new STU jersey uniting football again in the region.

Our under 13, under 14/15 and under 16 teams travel to Bowral to face Highlands United in pre-season.

Match reports

The under 13s kicked off the first match of the day, and the future of STU. With just a few training sessions under the belt this group of youngsters showed they will be a force to reckon with in 2018. They toiled hard and created a number of chances with an end to end affair. With some great goals from both teams looking like the spoils would be shared at 2-2, but Highlands snatch the win with the final kick of the game finding the back of the STU net.

A great effort from the 13s who, had their chances to win, enjoying a very solid start to 2018. I'm sure Saturday’s return leg will be a great match with neither team wanting to give the other a sniff.

Our under 16s kicked off next and it took a while for both teams to find their feet with the ball bouncing around the field more like a pinball than a football. The game settled mid way through the first half with some strong midfield play from both teams.

This started to create a few openings and the chances started to appear. At half time it was still at nil all. 

A dominant opening 10 minutes of the second half from Highlands saw us go down 2-0 to two great finishes into the corner of our keepers net. Our STU guys and girl could have been forgiven for dropping their heads, instead they were spurred into action and started to knock the ball around well with some incisive one-touch passes started to create some opportunities. While the STU keeper was stopping everything with desperation at one end it wasn't long before a great cross caused havoc in the opposition 18 yard box. We  found the back of the net with a great volley to get the score back within one goal. With a minute left on the clock the 16s looked to avenge the last minute disappointment of the earlier match and a great through ball found us one on one with the Highlands keeper. The shot went wide and we had to settle for a hard fought 2-1 loss.

Our under 14/15 squad ended up being a makeshift team from our two sides that had already played a full match. All players put up a great fight but in the end we ran out of puff with players backing up from their earlier fixtures and the Highlands ran away with the match in the second half to secure a 6-0 win.

The board, parents, supporters and coaches could not be more proud of the effort put forward by our junior teams. There is plenty to look forward to in 2018 at this club that now encompasses the representative duties of the entire southern Tablelands. Get down to Cookbundoon on Saturday, February 24, to support our teams as both juniors go into battle looking for the first win of many for Southern Tablelands United FC.