North Geelong slips closer to relegation

NORTH Geelong is now further off the pace in its battle to remain in NPL1, going down 3-1 to Avondale FC at Knights Stadium on Saturday.

In a dramatic finish to an otherwise dull game, three goals and a red card in the final 11 minutes handed the points to Avondale, who had momentarily moved to equal top with the win.

Following Port Melbourne’s victory against the Melbourne Knights, three points for Kingston City tonight could see North fall to 12 points off automatic safety, with seven games now remaining.

With both losing on the weekend, the gap to the 12thplaced Knights in the relegation playoff spot stays at eight points.

Following the match, a dejected Micky Colina stuck by his embattled players.

“It was an honest game, and I don’t think the scoreline properly reflected the two sides and how they played,” the Warriors coach said.

“We stopped them in a lot of instances, but they had polish in front of goal and we didn’t when it counted.”

“It’s the same thing every week. The boys work hard and battle for a result even when things don’t go their way. We’ll keep going.”

The Warriors started off on a disappointing note, with Kristian Trajceski scoring in only the 6th minute of play, after a cheap loss of possession.

Despite more of the ball, Avondale did nothing of any note throughout the contest, “He’s conquered the world. He’s scored at three world cups. If that’s not world class then I don’t know what is.” — Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou on Tim Cahill ahead of their Confederations Cup match against Chile overnight, which would have been the striker’s 100th cap for the national team but the Warriors failed to capitalise on the other end, with Matthew Thorne coming closest.

Massimo Murdocca doubled the margin in the 79th, heading in at the back post.

North Geelong had a glimmer of hope with time winding down, with an own goal getting the scoreline back to 2-1.

Thorne was then controversially sent off in his attempts to pick the ball up and quickly restart play.

Avondale keeper Evan Markogiannakis seemed to have blocked Thorne’s path and after the two came togeth- er, the Warriors’ attacker was given a straight red.

It was there, with North Geelong numbers committed forward, Jonatan Germano settled the result with a goal on the counter.

“The decision was controversial to say the least,” Colina said.

“What more do we have to do? Thorney might see 3-4 weeks for violent conduct and he hasn’t done a thing.

“It might not have affected the result, but we had momentum.

“These moments are just indicative of our season.”