West Canberra Wanderers imperiously marched into the Australia Cup Preliminary Round 5, the Federation Cup Quarter Finals, with a thumping 7-0 win over Capital League side Canberra Juventus, superbly avoiding any potential banana-skin with an impressive display at Melrose Synthetic.
The Wanderers, mindful of the fact that any match against a team from a league below offers the chance of an upset, hit the ground running and effectively killed off the tie with three goals in the first-half, the first two coming inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour of the contest.
If there was a touch of farce about the first goal, new signing Nicholas Roufagalis showing his alertness and continuing on when everyone else appeared to stop over a Wanderers penalty shout to fire an effort past Deakin Jewell at his near post, there was none about the second.
Roufagalis, who was sharp and incisive, showed wonderful agility to meet a right wing cross and volley into the top corner from close range, with Juventus being blown away by some fast combination play, pacey counterattacks and clinical finishing, the visitors having no answer to the Wanderers onslaught.
A third goal scored six minutes before half-time, as Riley Brown’s cross was deflected off the back of Juventus defender Noah Logan to loop in an unstoppable arc over the head of Jewell, virtually ended any hopes that Canberra Juventus had of somehow finding a foothold in the match.
There was more to come in the second half as Brown did get his name onto the scoresheet, clipping a composed finish into the net twelve minutes after the restart and a quickfire double from substitute Harry Truman added gloss to the scoreboard, the forward stabbing in from close range before drilling an accurate shot into the bottom corner after being superbly set-up by George Pavese.
Juventus were presented with their moment to net their first Cup goal since 2018 when Andre Jugovac was up-ended in the area, but skipper Nathan Duck unfortunately sent his penalty against the upright and, to rub salt into the wound, Daniel Grove capitalised on a tired defensive clearance to curl home the seventh.
Sunday 19 March
West Canberra Wanderers 7 (Roufagalis 8’, 14’, Logan 39’ (og), Brown 57’, Truman 83’, 84’, Grove 90+1’) Canberra Juventus 0
Photo: Mike Perry