South Wagga become the first team to take points from Hanwood in Pascoe Cup with 1-1 draw

The Warriors could easily have taken all three but had to settle with a 1-1 draw against the ladder leaders at Rawlings Park.

The ground erupted in the 80^th minute when Eric Vincent capitalised on a Hanwood error to put South Wagga 1-0 in front.

Unfortunately for the home team, the elation lasted less than a minute as Harry Brill made an error on the Warriors goal line and gifted an own goal to Hanwood to level the scores at 1-1.

Both teams continued to push hard but were unable to break the deadlock.

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Hanwood coach Jason Bertacco said the result was as good as a loss for his team.

"For us that's a loss. We'll take that as a loss because of the chances we had," Bertacco said.

"The boys are real disappointed because that's the standard that they set. That's why the boys are the way they are and strive to get better each week so to us it is a draw but we will take that as a loss.

"It was one of those days. The ball didn't want to go in. We had plenty of chances, it was just one of those days in footy. We had plenty of troops missing, so I'm proud of the boys, proud of the club, they've been backing up and what not for the last five weeks."

South Wagga counterpart Andy Heller was much more upbeat as the Warriors continued their strong run of form.

"It was a great game," Heller said.

"To draw with Hanwood when we had such a depleted team and people playing injuries for the whole game, it was a good effort.

"If you had of given me 1-1 at the start of the game, I would have taken it. I think it's a fair result.

"At the end of the day, they had the opportunities to score, and so did we, but they had enough chances to score and at the end, we took one of them for them, I suppose, but they took one."

Heller believes the draw will only provide his group with more confidence as finals approaches.

"We came into the game feeling quite confident, knowing Hanwood had a number of players out today but we also knew we had a lot out, the fact that we beat them in second grade and got the point against them today, no one's done that and it shows the strength of our squad and the team that we have," Heller said.

"We had a number of our recent juniors playing first grade today for a full 90 and they hooked in and made the difference.

"We said when we came into this game, it was more to show to ourselves that we were a finals shout and I think that we felt that in the last game but the scoreline ran away from us but today, it helps I suppose knowing they had a few out, but still that might happen in finals and we had players out too and still managed to make it happen."

South Wagga 1 drew with Hanwood 1

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Young 6 d Tumut 1

Leeton United d Henwood Park

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