The young Strikers started the game at a quick tempo, playing the ball around nicely and having a good couple of cracks at the ACTAS goal in the early stages.

It didn’t take long for the Strikers to breakthrough, about 15 minutes in a nice interchange of passes between the Goulburn midfield and forward line led to a nicely played ball landing right at Sam Toparis’ feet, he kept his cool and placed the ball into the corner of the ACTAS goal giving Goulburn a 1-0 lead.

From the restart ACTAS started to crawl back into the game with their precise passing and quick movement of the ball. However all chances carved out by the ACTAS team where immediately shut down by the Goulburn defence and at times the Goulburn goalkeeper Jakson Mills.

Goulburn had many chances to extend their lead however the ACTAS keeper was alert to the danger and was able to stop the shots. Goulburn were almost 2-0 in front when a quick break from the Strikers led to a chance for Jason Broadbent.

He whose attempted chip shot from outside the box rebounded off the crossbar, Corey Manning was alert to the opportunity for a tap in and managed to get a touch to it, however the ACTAS Custodian managed to regather it before it rolled in.

With five minutes before half time, a well hit corner found Goulburn Midfielder Jesse Gilbert, whose header looked to be going in if it wasn’t for the quick reactions of the ACTAS goalkeeper.

However this wasn’t to be the last chance of the half, with about one minute left in the half, Goulburn had a corner, which Kurt Southwell knocked into the middle of the box.

Midfielder Jesse Gilbert rose well and this time made sure of his header, connecting with the ball strongly and sending it flying into the bottom of the crossbar, the ball bounced down off the crossbar and off the ACTAS goalkeeper and into the net. Goulburn were 2-0 up and it was time for a break with

Half-time being called after the kick off. Some words of advice and encouragement from coach Chris Watson had the boys pumped up and raring to go for the second half, although from the kick off the Strikers fell asleep and let ACTAS crawl back into the game.

ACTAS created many chances and if it wasn’t for the last ditch tackles by the Goulburn defence or the heroics of Jakson Mills in goals, ACTAS would have been back in the game with a couple of quick goals. After 20 minutes Goulburn woke up and started playing the quick moving football coach Chris Watson has been asking from them for many weeks.

The young Strikers started to create some good opportunities and finally got that third decisive goal they had been looking for. The ball was played out wide for Chris Armstrong whose pinpoint cross found a diving Jesse Gilbert, who somehow managed to connect with the diving header and the ball flew into the bottom corner of the goal.

With Goulburn up 3-0 and only 15 or so minutes to go, the game looked to be theirs. With about 10 minutes on the clock striker Jason Broadbent received the ball on top of the 18 yard box, he ran towards the goal and was fouled in the process.

He managed to stay on his feet and place the ball into the back of the net, however the referee pulled it back for the original foul on the top of the box.

The resulting free kick was blazed over the crossbar. A couple more chances were created and with the last kick of the game a scramble in the box lead to the ball being cleared for another corner for the Goulburn Strikers, however the referee called time and handed the Strikers 16s their first win of the season.

Everyone played their part in the convincing win over a solid ACTAS side. ACTAS 0 – 3 Goulburn Strikers (Jesse Gilbert 2, Sam Toparis 1)