Whiteside’s magic touch

No stranger to a spectacular goal, Bonnyrigg White Eagles central defender Thomas Whiteside did it again with a goal of the season contender in Football NSW’s match of the round for the League One Men’s competition last weekend.

Whiteside who notched up over 100 games for his former club Sydney Olympic, made a move to Bonnyrigg Sports Club in the offseason and announced himself in spectacular style last Sunday.

With the scores locked at 1-1, the central defender stepped up to a free kick on halfway and after spotting the keeper off his line, he found the back of the net in spectacular style. Asked about the goal he told us.

“I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking, we had won the free kick around halfway and I noticed the keeper was off his line.

“I told Zac (Sfiligoi) to put the ball down quickly and hesitated for a second and then said to myself “yeah why not let’s go for it” and hit the ball sweetly and it sailed into the back of the net.”

It’s another memorable finish for Whiteside who also picked up the 2018 NPL NSW Men’s goal of the season at his former club.

Whiteside made the move to Bonnyrigg White Eagles in the off season, asked about how his settled in, he continued.

“Obviously spending so long at Olympic it was going to be a fair bit of change moving to Bonnyrigg. The club has been exceptional in this transition though and really welcomed me into their community

“From the board to the coaching staff and the players have been fantastic in going above and beyond really understanding of work commitments and making sure everything runs as smoothly as it can. The club has a great culture and all the players have become good mates which has also made the transition easy as well.”

And they are getting their rewards for the positive culture, winning their past three games in the league.

“I think we had a pretty slow start, we had a few injuries early on and there was a lot of new players in the team that were still finding their feet and getting used to playing with other. The last 4-5 weeks though we have slowly turned it around and now put ourselves in a good position to push for the second half of the season.”

Looking ahead, his confident that they can push on.

“We have started to really come together as a squad and the team is really starting to click now and grow in confidence. We need to find a way to maintain this momentum and be consistent each week and keep pushing through the second half of the season.”

This weekend, his side face Hills United in a big game in the competition which you can catch at the Rigg or on NPL.TV.

Asked about the forthcoming fixture he told Football NSW.

“It’s a huge game this weekend.

“Hills United have set the benchmark for the competition and we need to rise to the occasion.

“We are at home so hopefully we can get another big crowd at “The Rigg” and we can put on another good show for all our fans and sponsors.”

-By Justin Smith