The Maitland Magpies delivered their best performance of 2020 to smash Newcastle Olympic 4-0 in wind and rain to progress to the Northern NSW NPL preliminary final against Broadmeadow Magic next Sunday.
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The Magpies controlled the match in the first half but were unable to convert their chances including a penalty missed by Braedyn Crowley when Olympic keeper Nathanael Cavaliere dived to his right and blocked the shot.
Cavaliere had kept Olympic in the game in the first half when Maitland had played into a 40km/h wind blowing down straight down the pitch at Darling Street Oval.
But just eight minutes after the break Crowley got the first of his double.
Crowley found himself on the end of a long clearing ball from defence. He beat one defender and then in a clever move dinked the ball over the advancing keeper with a defender bearing down on him.
"I've obviously felt him just behind me and I saw the keeper coming out," Crowley explained in an interview on BarTV.
"I could tell he (the keeper)was going to slide. I was either going to take it past him or if I tried to put power on it he would have stopped it.
"I went for the dink and it happened to go over the both of them."
Crowley doubled the Magpies lead in the 67th minute with a shot under the crossbar after timing his run to perfection to the right side of the penalty area.
The double took his tally for the season to 16 goals from 15 games.
"It was good to get the two goals after that missing the penalty in the first half and having those few chances," he said.
"The boys said at half-time 'we are creating chances so we just had to go out there and put one away'.
"We did and we just kept going.
"We knew if we could get that first goal we would come away with the win.
"I'm just happy to get the win as I think we deserved it."
Jimmy Thompson got Maitland's third in the 73rd minute when a cracking shot from 25 metres out took a deflection and beat Cavliere.
It was party time in the 75th when Ryan Clarke was rewarded for his hard-running and set-up play when the ball landed at his feet in the centre of the penalty area from a Crowely cross.
Clarke volleyed the ball low past Cavaliere and then celebrated in style with jump in the air and feigned faint.
Maitland's defence was firmly on top with Liam Thornton passing a fitness test to join goalkeeper Matt Trott in running out for their 100th games for the club.
The win ensured skipper Carl Thornton will play his 100th game next week in Maitland's third sudden death final when they meet Broadmeadow Magic, who led three times only to lose 7-6 on penalties to minor premiers Edgeworth in the major semi-final.
Crowley said confidence was high in the Magpies camp and they were feeling fresh going into today's match despite last week's draining penalty shootout victory over Charlestown.
"The mood was good at training this week. We obviously had a bit lighter week," Crowley said.
"A few boys were injured and I was pretty bad myself but I think the good thing about our club is that we did all the little things right. We had light sessions and coming into this game we were feeling fresh."
