A goal from Christian Junna five minutes into stoppage time culminated an astonishing end to the fixture at High Street as Queanbeyan City snatched a point from the top-of-the-table clash with Belconnen United as the pair shared four goals in a 2-2 stalemate.
Junna’s goal was the third in seven incredible minutes as the Blue Devils thought they’d won the maximum return, only to be pegged back, only to believe they’d won the maximum return again, to once more being forced to settled for a share of the honours in front of a lively home support.
After a goalless first-half it was the visiting side who took the lead eleven minutes upon the resumption as striker David McCarron found the target, and that appeared to be the winning goal until the goal-laden denouement.
Awarded a penalty with two minutes remaining, Niko Abot did the honours for Queanbeyan to draw them level, only for Hayden Tunney to restore Belconnen’s lead four minutes not time added on. That seemed to be that, but Queanbeyan, and Junna, had other ideas to claim a point.
Yoogali SC moved up into second place on the league table as they won for the third time at home this season, claiming the bragging rights in the Riverina Derby with a 5-2 hammering of Wagga City Wanderers at Solar Mad Stadium in Griffith.
In a goal-laden fixture, it was the home side that roared out of the blocks as Joe Preece opened the scoring in the thirteenth minute before Darren Bailey recorded his fifth goal of the season to out his team ahead by two.
Tyler Allen reduced the arrears before the break for the Wanderers to bring them back into the match, but the impressive Joshua De Rossi restored the two-goal lead with the third home goal on the hour. Wanderers refused to give up and when Nashwan Sulaiman netted it was game on.
Yoogali though ended as they had begun, finishing strongly as Samuel Raciti and De Rossi, the latter moving onto three goals for the campaign, struck to take the match away from the visiting side and push Yoogali up into title contention.
Brindabella Blues edged into the top four ahead of the Sunday afternoon fixture as they claimed their second victory of the season, defeating Canberra Juventus 2-1 in a hotly contended encounter at Ipan Park in Calwell.
A pair of goals in the opening forty-five minutes of the match sealed the full haul of points for Ray Junna and his team, as the Blues start to recover from a disappointing beginning to the new season.
A stubborn Juventus held out for thirty-five minutes until Jamie Ward opened the scoring for the hosts, and when Henry Wilks doubled the advantage, with his second goal of the year for the Blues, Brindabella were comfortably in control of their own destiny on an unseasonably calm afternoon.
Juventus, bottom of the league and seeking to find their feet at this level, hit back in the second stanza when Nathan Duck reduced the gap to just one, but they were unable to drag themselves back onto terms and are still seeking a route off the bottom of the early league table.
A late goal from Steven Kreskas, his third of the season, earned White Eagles a point from a 2-2 draw with ANU FC in an exciting match played on Sunday afternoon in incessant rain, which made life exceedingly difficult for both teams.
Kreskas netted with five minutes remaining to earn his team a draw after ANU FC had led 2-1 at the interval after a sprightly start to the encounter saw both teams find the back of the net inside the opening ten minutes.
Roshan Lamichhane gave Eagles a sixth minute lead, only for a fourth of the year from Nicholas Hope to bring ANU FC back on terms. Tim Lopez put the visitors ahead at half-time but Kreskas ensured his team would end on terms with the fourth goal of the contest close to full-time.
RESULTS
ROUND 5
Saturday 6 May
Yoogali SC 5 (Preece 13’, Bailey 29’, De Rossi 60’, 84’, Raciti 80’) Wagga City Wanderers 2 (Allen 38’, Sulaiman 75’)
Brindabella Blues 2 (Ward 35’, Wilks 44’) Canberra Juventus 1 (Duck 63’)
Queanbeyan City 2 (Abot 88’ (p), Junna 90+5’) Belconnen United 2 (McCarron 56’, Tunney 90+4’)
Sunday 7 May
White Eagles 2 (Lamichhane 6’, Kreskas 85’) ANU FC 2 (Hope 9’, Lopez 25’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Queanbeyan City | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 11 |
| 2 | Yoogali SC | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 10 | +5 | 9 |
| 3 | Belconnen United | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 10 | +3 | 8 |
| 4 | ANU FC | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 13 | +2 | 7 |
| 5 | Brindabella Blues | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | -5 | 7 |
| 6 | Wagga City Wanderers | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 6 |
| 7 | White Eagles | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 10 | +2 | 5 |
| 8 | Canberra Juventus | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 18 | -10 | 3 |
TOP SCORERS
6 Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers)
5 Darren BAILEY (Yoogali SC)
4 Niko ABOT (Queanbeyan City), Nicholas HOPE (ANU FC), Zac LAWRENCE (White Eagles)
3 Joshua DE ROSSI (Yoogali SC), Nathan DUCK (Canberra Juventus), Steven KRESKAS (White Eagles), Rory SPIERS (ANU FC), Own GOALS
2 Ryan GULEVSKI (Queanbeyan City), Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), David MCCARRON (Belconnen United), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Joe PREECE (Yoogali SC), Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues), Nashwan SULAIMAN (Wagga City Wanderers), Hayden TUNNEY (Belconnen United), Luke VALLONE (Belconnen United), Henry WILKS (Brindabella Blues)
1 Tyler ALLEN (Wagga City Wanderers), Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (ANU FC), Aleksander BELJANSKI (White Eagles), Harry BILLINGTON (Belconnen United), Adam BROOKS (Canberra Juventus), David CARDER (Belconnen United), Abderrahim DELLAHI (Queanbeyan City), Mason DONADEL (Yoogali SC), Reuben DONADEL (Yoogali SC), William DWIGHT (Canberra Juventus), Hussein FUREJE (Queanbeyan City), Jack GIBSON (ANU FC), Monteagh GRACE (ANU FC), Oliver GRIST (ANU FC), Andre JUGOVAC (Canberra Juventus), Christian JUNNA (Queanbeyan City), Roshan LAMICHHANE (White Eagles), Tim LOPEZ (ANU FC), Andrew MANLEY (ANU FC), Nathan MATTHEWS (Canberra Juventus), Zac MAYBURY (Belconnen United), Van NGUYEN (Canberra Juventus), Michael PICCOLO (Queanbeyan City), Maxwell PREST (Wagga City Wanderers), Jake PLOENGES (Wagga City Wanderers), Samuel RACITI (Yoogali SC), Dejan SANTRAC (White Eagles), Kolby SEARS (Yoogali SC), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Nikola TRAJKOVSKI (Queanbeyan City), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United), Jamie WARD (Brindabella Blues), Jan WOJNA (ANU FC)
