Wariors fall short in tight tussle
NORTH Geelong’s chances for promotion into NPL1 have become slimmer after a disappointing 1-0 loss to St Albans yesterday.
The Warriors knew they needed to leave Churchill’s Reserve with a win in order to stay in touch with the competition’s top three, even more so considering the threeleague points stolen away from them midweek by Football Federation Victoria for their involvement in a post-match melee against Melbourne Victory.
From the outset North played like a side brimming with confidence, producing a performance that was impressive aside from the end result.
“It’s disappointing coming away losing 1-0 feeling as if we’d done enough to win the game in terms of chances created and limiting them,” coach James Coutts said postmatch.
“I’m very pleased performance-wise but disappointed in the result.
“It’s massively frustrating ... we mixed things up today in terms of personnel and game plan and saw what St Albans were about and we felt first half we executed in what we needed to apart from the end product.”
It was evident early North was trying to capitalise on the offensive combination of Darius Madison and Jamie Noggler — a clear factor of their recent good run of form.
A clever Madison header found Noggler with just the keeper to beat but the finesse shot caught the wrong side of the goalpost and ricocheted away.
Ben Hampson then showed his ability to create from the turnover, waltzing past the Saints midfield to draw a free kick in a promising position for North.
Hampson continued to show signs of the elite technical skill and awareness he possesses. He formed a solid defensive duo with Lewis Waight, who didn’t look at all out of place playing in the centre-back role.
“Young Lewy (Waight) was excellent coming in and Hampo (Hampson) was again superb because their forwards can cause problems so I was delighted,” Coutts said.
Both sides enjoyed their fair share of counter attacking play.
A golden opportunity came for the Saints on transition but North stopper Hamish Flavell produced a quality save, closing in the angle then using his body to deny the Saints’ chance at an opener.
Noggler again bobbed up, twisting and turning through the St Albans defence and was eerily close to another topshelf goal, but was sensationally saved by Saints goalkeeper Robert Santilli.
A crucial challenge from Kreso Jurkovic deep in the North defensive box summed up the dogmatic defensive pressure instilled throughout the game.
St Albans’ goal was always going to come on transition.
It was where they looked most dangerous, opting to use long balls and crosses as their main avenue on goal.
In the split moment, Nicholas Teichmann overran the ball and the Saints caught North out with a defensive shape that was not as compact as the 70 minutes previous.
The floating cross found a St Albans head powerful enough on goal to not allow Andreas Miltiadou to deflect it away from danger.
Instead an own-goal was the end result, leaving North ruing their lack of decisiveness when it counted most. THE State 1 title race has been blown wide open after a disappointing and at times disjointed Geelong failed to break down a resolute Altona City defence.
City had all the answers at Stead Park, collecting a 1-0 win on Saturday night. After an unimpressive opening half, the visitors were unlucky not to go into the break a goal up after hitting the underside of the crossbar.
However, they would get their goal in the 72nd minute.
Altona’s Callum Byrne found the back of the net to give the visitors cause for celebration as they recorded a major upset against the league leaders.
As a result of Geelong’s unexpected loss, second-placed Keilor Park narrowed the gap at the top of the table to just four points after defeating Yarraville 2-1 away from home.
With an in-form Preston and the ever dangerous North Sunshine in hot pursuit, the race for the State 1 crown and eventual promotion to next season’s NPL2 is set to go right down to the wire. Geelong is away to third last placed Essendon Royals in a must-win
encounter next week.