'Heartbreaking' lapses cost Mountain Goats streak-snapping win

Nearly all players can recount numerous instances when they were mere centimetres away from kicking an unforgettable goal or dived full-length only to deflect the ball into the net instead of away from it.

But when Moore Creek took on the unbeaten OVA on Saturday, the Mountain Goats were confident they could end the Mushies' 39-match unbeaten streak.

"We were pretty confident that we could give them a really good run for their money," Moore Creek coach and goalkeeper, Dean Hoy, said.

"They're a quality team, and you can tell they've played together for a lot of years, but the run's got to end sometime."

And that belief was infused in the way the Mountain Goats played. They went up 1-0 in the first half, before OVA responded in kind a few minutes later.

But when Moore Creek added a second goal to take a 2-1 lead, they were determined to maintain that margin. And they did, into the break and for the majority of the second half.

However, with scarcely a dozen minutes left in the game, OVA broke through the Mountain Goats' defences again to level the score.

"It was a little heartbreaking," Hoy said of the moment he heard the ball hit the back of the net.

"But if you lapse off against OVA, they're going to make you pay, and that's what we did. We didn't get the defence sorted where we needed to, and paid the price."

So, when asked if he was pleased or disappointed by the 2-2 scoreline on the weekend, Hoy was "indifferent".

On the one hand, the team showed marked improvement from their round one performance - a 2-0 defeat to OVA - and held the Mushies to just their second draw of the season.

But on the other, they had an ideal chance to end a historic winning streak and couldn't grab it.

"I didn't know whether to be happy or not, to be honest," Hoy said.

"I thought we could have closed that game out, but we just missed our chances a couple of times, and they took theirs."

Both clubs also put their support for Indigenous culture and heritage on display while wearing custom-designed kits on the weekend.

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