Melbourne City hero Jess Fishlock says her stunning goal in Sunday’s Westfield W-League Grand Final was no fluke, revealing they had a plan to stop Sydney FC’s fast-counter attacks from the back.
Fishlock set the decider alight with an incredible strike 10 minutes before the break after capitalising on an error by the Sky Blues deep in their own half.
After dispossessing Georgia Yeoman-Dale, Fishlock spotted keeper Aubrey Bledsoe – who had early done a quick throw out to her right-back – off her line and launched an audacious long-range strike over the stranded shot-stopper.
The goal handed City the initiative and they would never seriously be threatened from that point, eventually running out 2-0 winners to secure their third-straight Westfield W-League crown.
“I’m not going to say I didn’t feel great about what happened and scoring the goal, but the goal comes from our preparation,” Fishlock said.
“We know they break from the goalkeeper on the counter attack very fast and we said this week we have to set up to stop that and that’s where the goal came from.
“They tried to break, we set up from that, we picked them off, we scored a goal. So as much it was a good finish, it was set up through the preparation we had this week.”
While City didn’t have a bad player, Fishlock was the clear standout to make it back-to-back player of the match awards in the grand final.
Not only did the Welsh whiz score the opening goal but it was her free-kick which rebounded off the crossbar which saw Jodie Taylor put the icing on the cake.
Asked what winning consecutive player of the grand final awards meant to her, Fishlock said: “Honestly, not that much. And that may sound terrible to people, but the most important thing is winning the game and you can’t do it on your own.
“I thought our back line was superb today, I thought Aivi [Luik] was superb, Jodie Taylor I thought was fantastic for us.
“Obviously I scored the goal and took the free kick so I get the plaudits, and I understand that, but I’m not one for individual awards in a team game because you can’t do what you do without everyone else.
“I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, but winning as team is much more important to me than any individual award.”
