Baptism of fire for Kiama

IT was never going to be easy for newly promoted Kiama Football Club, but nobody could have predicted the 5-nil baptism of fire that awaited Garry Hatton's young charges against his former club Tarrawanna.

Kris Brant had the first chance for the hosts, when his 15th minute effort was saved. Three minutes later Tarrawanna went a goal up when a shot hit the Kiama post, goalkeeper Kiel Zerner and dribbled over the line.

Later a Brant freekick just dipped over the Tarrawanna crossbar. One minute later the visitors were two up, when a quick break caught the defence napping and a well placed shot gave Zerner no chance.

Kiama gave the ball away too often in midfield. putting their defence under pressure.

Kiama played well in spells, but did not supply the forwards enough ammunition to trouble Tarrawanna. Winger Matt Goss was never used to his full potential.

Another freekick, this time to John Hatton failed to find the target.

To make matters worse for Kiama in the 43rd minute, captain Dave Buchanan was shown a straight red card for a tackle with supposedly studs showing.

With seconds on the clock remaining, Zerner made a magnificent save to keep Kiama in the contest for the second half.

In the second half Mitch Grant worked tirelessly in the middle while Brad Page and Fritz Wieland soaked up pressure at the back, but the team lacked the killer punch upfront.

On the hour coach Hatton made a double substitution to try and salvage something from the game.

To Kiama's credit it wasn't until the 75th minute that Tarrawanna made it 3-nil with a header off a free kick.

Tarrawanna"s extra man started to take its toll against Kiama and the visitors scored again in the 80th minute. Zerner managed to clear his line at the first attempt, but could do nothing about the follow up in the goalmouth melee.

In the 88th minute a great save by Zerner kept the scoreline to four, when a nice one-two by Tarrawanna at the edge of the penalty area left the keeper exposed, but he did well to smother the shot.

Luke Bedford was brought on with 5 minutes of normal time remaining, but the game was lost by then and in the dying minutes of injury time, Tarrawanna scored a fifth goal to seal a comfortable victory overall.

Kiama now travel to Picton Rangers next week, 1-0 victors over Kemblawarra, without its captain Dave Buchanan.

The pressure is now off Kiama after this iinitiation and each game should be treated as a grand final if the team are to stay up.

Earlier in the day Kiama Youth grade lost 4-1 (Richard Nelson, pen), while the Reserves went down one nil in another wise solid team performance