The Cowra Eagles senior men’s side has claimed its first win of the season after a gruelling weekend of back to back games, bouncing back from Saturday disappointment to secure a hard fought 1-0 victory on Sunday. The weekend began with a 2-0 loss to Orange Services Club before the Eagles regrouped less than 24 hours later to defeat Pinnacle FC, earning a morale boosting result. Coach Adam Gambrill said while he would have preferred two wins, finally getting points on the board was a major positive. “I would have liked to have won two, but to get our first win of the season was obviously very positive and very pleasing,” Gambrill said. Gambrill credited several standout individual performances for helping the Eagles secure victory on Sunday. “We had a number of fantastic individual performances,” he said. “I’d say our goalkeeper Matt made some huge saves for us on Sunday in our win.” “Brandon Dickerson scoring a goal, finding the back of the net for us on Sunday was a huge moment.” Gambrill also praised the team’s defensive structure and midfield control in the victory. “The way we defended and controlled midfield on Sunday would be another thing we did really well,” he said. The Saturday defeat, however, left Gambrill feeling the side had been unlucky not to come away with a result. “There was a couple of key decisions which probably went against us, that another day, another time, they go in our favour and we probably win that game, or at least draw that game,” he said. “I’d probably just put it down to the football gods not being in our favour on Saturday.” The Eagles were also forced to navigate significant personnel challenges across the weekend, with several key players unavailable for the opening match. “We were a little bit under band on Saturday,” Gambrill said. “We had probably six of our first 11 out of the game on Saturday, and we got half of them back into the side on Sunday.” He admitted playing two 90 minute matches on consecutive days was far from ideal. “Playing two games back to back on the one weekend is really less than ideal,” he said. “That in itself is as much of a challenge as anything else.” Despite the demanding schedule, Gambrill believes Sunday’s breakthrough win can provide momentum moving forward. “Our next game this coming weekend is at home, which is obviously a big positive,” he said. “To get the monkey off the back is huge for us as well." "Get that first win of the season, get a taste for winning games again, and hopefully we can use that result on Sunday to springboard into another really good performance this week.” With confidence restored and home fixtures ahead, the Eagles will now look to build on their breakthrough result and turn early-season promise into consistency.
