Altitude women continue their strong start, as the men still struggle to find their form in L1BC action against Nanaimo United

Easter travel on BC Ferries is often not smooth sailing and traveling to North Vancouver to take on Altitude FC is probably not the way many at Nanaimo United would have ideally chosen to spend their Easter Sunday.

Returning to Nanaimo with six points would certainly have made for an eggstra special weekend, but as it played out, the islanders were only able to return with a solitary point and no goals to show for their efforts in the their two League1 BC matches at Kinsmen Field.

Here’s how the action went down.

2025 League1BC Women’s Division – Week 3 – Altitude FC 4 – 0 Nanaimo United FC

The game started slow with each team trying to work out strategies and testing the oppositions weaknesses.

Altitude dominated the possession, but Nanaimo looked the favourites to score, when Ruby Nicholls hit the post in the 15th minute and the crossbar in the 23rd.

In the 25th minute Altitude made some useful substitutions that seemed to contain Nanaimo’s attacks for the remainder of the half.

Altitude continued their dominance of the possession in the second half and made use of the slight downhill attack on several occasions, pushing down the left-wing.

This strategy paid off in the 51st minute when Avery Tulloch sent a ball into the box from the left wing for an unmarked Ella Sunde to open the scoring for Altitude.

Less than two minutes later, it was 2-0 for the home side, with Bailey Doerksen making a solo run down the right and firing a shot past Nanaimo keeper Kaiden Thorpe, who up to that point had been strong in goal.

Altitude appeared to have gained some composure and control of the game, making another left-wing attack, this time from Vanessa Tome, that Kiara Kilbey caught on the volley giving the keeper no chance.

Nanaimo seemed unable to control Altitude’s left-wing attacks, and for the third time in this half, a cross-goal ball from the left side was converted by Doerkson for her second of the game and the win was secured.

After a bit of a stalemate in the first-half, did the slope on the field help Altitude in that second half goal explosion?

“We do have a bit of a slope here, but Nanaimo were able to contain our attacks in the first half,” Altitude head coach Jesse Symons told me after the match. “But we were able to open up and make some better chances in the second.”

And those chances in particular came from making very effective use of the left-wing.

“We have some good attacking players making use of that dynamic,” Symons added. “Vanessa [Tome] had a good game and Bailey [Doerksen] was able to attack through the middle. I was happy how our team built together and got forward.”

Nanaimo certainly contained Altitude in the first half, and were creating the better chances. What was it that separated the two teams in the second half?

“I think we forced them to change their system and we couldn’t account for that,” Nanaimo head coach Bobbie Taylor told me after the game. “They are a very fast, fit team. If you want to compete against teams like Altitude, your fitness needs to be higher.”

Is that something Nanaimo are working on?

“Yes, I think it will come,” Taylor added. “But when you play against players of that level, you get an honest indication of fitness.”

You can find John and Hazel’s photos from the match on AFTN’s Flickr page HERE.

2025 League1 BC Men’s Division – Week 3 – Altitude FC 0 – 0 Nanaimo United FC

In this very fast, physical, intense game, it proved to be a question of ‘who will break the deadlock first and allow the opposition an opportunity’. As it turned out, neither team was able to.

By the end of the first-half, it was apparent that both teams had very capable defenders who had the measure of their opposing forwards. The only point of note in the first-half was a yellow card to Altitude’s Matthew Marshall for a reckless challenge.

The second-half continued in the same vein, with each coach making tactical substitutions, but a revision of strategy failed to break the deadlock.

An appeal for handball, by an Altitude defender, was waved away by the referee, who determined that the game was over rather than allow the corner to much anger, but the match was far from a classic and showed both teams that they need to improve a lot if they are to be anything near title contenders.

There was lots of frenetic play without much end product from both teams, who both logged their first point of the new season.

For Altitude, after failing to win either of their first two home matches, where does head coach Faly Basse see his team going forward from here?

“I think our gameplan works well, the finishing needs to be improved,” Basse noted. “We struggled in the last third of the field, but I believe the only thing missing was a goal and we need to work on that.”

Like many teams, Altitude are still missing crucial players.

“We do have a few missing players,” Basse mused. “But with injuries, that’s the issue. We have some U21 players today and that’s a good opportunity for them to step up. Again it’s not about what’s missing, it about what we can deliver. We cannot focus on players that are not here and we are missing the last piece – a goal.”

It was a very physical game. Was that something Nanaimo head coach Kevin Lindo felt had a bearing on the result?

“We cancelled each other out today,” Lindo said after the match. “We knew it was going to be like that, we knew we had to create chances and I felt it was a fair result.”

Even though there were missed chances, there was some quality chances, did he get any pleasure from these?

“Absolutely,” Lindo added. “I was really pleased with the way we fashioned chances. We want goals obviously, but it’s a tough place to get a goal.”

You can find John and Hazel’s photos from the match on AFTN’s Flickr page HERE.