PORT United launched a second half comeback to overcome the Northern Storm 2-1 in the Coastal Premier League last Saturday at Korora.

Northern Storm attacked from the opening whistle and went ahead through a James Gorrie goal to finish the first half 1-0 ahead and in control of the game.

Port United fought back in the second half, scoring from a Matthew Broderick penalty and then a goal from Matt Bale who squeezed the ball inside the near post to take all three points.

Storm joint coach Craig Caruana was disappointed with the result following his team’s promising start.

“A fairly even and very physical first half, we took one of our chances and finished the half strong.

“We dominated for the first fifteen minutes of the second half and created a number of chances and didn’t take them and got punished.

“We fell asleep at the wheel and gave away another stupid penalty five minutes later and for the second year in a row got caught napping from a quick throw and conceded a goal, totally unacceptable against quality opposition at this level,” said Caruana.

Port United coach Nathan Wade was pleased to take the points back to Port Macquarie in a tough match of two halves.

“Very tough game, very physical, both sides didn’t want to give an inch, we went down one nil in the first half and to our boys’ credit they kept fighting and came back with a hard fought 2-1 win,” said Wade.

The Northern Storm’s next match is against cross town rivals the Coffs Coast Tigers next Saturday at 5pm at Polwarth Drive.

 

By David WIGLEY