Young hold Pascoe Cup ladder leaders Henwood Park to 1-1 draw

A Patrick Hislop goal midway through the second half helped Young clinch a vital point against the Hawks at Hall Brothers Oval in Young.

The point moves Young above Tolland on goal difference, and keeps them in fourth position on the Pascoe Cup ladder with two rounds remaining.

The Hawks had earlier hit the front through Damon Watson, as he continued his strong debut season for the undefeated ladder leaders.

It was only the second time this season that Henwood Park had not walked away with the four points, while it was the third draw of the season for Young.

Young coach Mark Mellish was happy to push the ladder leaders but also disappointed that they did not come away with the three points.

"Yes and no. It was a game where both teams could have won. That was probably the most frustrating thing," Mellish said.

"As I said to my guys, we had enough chances to win the game. Obviously they had chances as well.

"I've been saying to my guys, we've just got to play how we know we can. Obviously Henwood Park are a good side, they're undefeated for a reason but I didn't think, even after we conceded the first goal, I didn't think wed shut up shop. We didn't drop our heads and that's something that I've fundamentally been instilling into my players.

"Everyone knows we fly under the radar and today I said to the boys let's come out and make a statement so people know we're around. Whether we made a statement or not, I don't know."

The statement was that Young is certainly not an easy team to beat and again proved they can more than match it with the top teams in the competition after a draw against Hanwood in Griffith earlier in the season.

With Duncan Cameron out, Liam Fingleton came in and enjoyed a fine game in his first grade debut. Hislop and Isaac Hines were others to shine in a good, physical encounter.

With two rounds remaining, basically five teams are vying for the four positions in the Pascoe Cup finals.

Mellish said the equation is simple for his team.

"We need to win the last two," he said.

"Lake Albert, they're always going to be a good tussle. They knocked us off in 2018 so we want to get that back against them.

"It's over there, which is going to make it difficult but hopefully we can get the points there and that sets us up for Tolland."

Henwood Park coach Scott Elphick was happy to keep his team's undefeated record in tact.

"In the end I was happy because we played a better second half. In the first half we were a bit slow to get going," Elphick said.

"They had a couple young players who are very quick and in a couple more seasons they will be dangerous players. Very dangerous.

"In the end, we stuck to the team task and got another point for us."

Watson was Henwood Park's best, while Michael Colohan, Ned Evans and Matthew Cain also enjoyed strong games.

Tumut 5 (W Goode, T Dixon 2, D French 2) d South Wagga 0

Hanwood FC 2 (N Battochio 2) d Wagga United 1 (M Crawford)

Young 1 (P Hislop) drew with Henwood Park 1 (D Watson)

Leeton 2 (F Gardner, A Raso) d Tolland 0

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