Belconnen United overturned a recent run of poor-form to announce themselves as top-four contenders in the Capital Premier League with a 2-1 win over Brindabella Blues at McKellar Park. Two first-half goals enabled the Blue Devils to climb above their opponents and move to within a point of the final’s places.
As expected, a battling Blues proved to be a tough nut to crack for Belconnen, but they gave themselves the perfect start to proceedings as Charlie D’Addario found the target for the first time this season in only the twelfth minute. When Abraham Kemp made it two in the 34th minute, there was work to be done for Brindabella.
A swathe of yellow cards either side of the interval suggested that the contest was living on the edge and, when Curtis Schaeffer reduced the arrears on the hour, a nervy ending was ensured. Belconnen did enough however to ease their way home and claim a vital win over fellow promotion hopefuls.
A four-goal second-half blitz from Yoogali SC saw the league leaders maintain their four-point advantage at the head of the table as they heaped the pressure on White Eagles with a commanding 4-1 away win at Woden Park.
Riding high at the summit of the league, and another game closer to claiming a maiden top-flight campaign, Yoogali looked imperious once midfielder Joshua De Rossi had broken through in the 63rd minute of an engaging contest.
What effectively sealed the result though, and the three points, was the brace of goals within two minutes of each other as firstly Darren Bailey scored from the penalty spot to make it 2-0 before De Rossi netted his second, the duo moving onto eight and six goals for the CPL season respectively.
There was still time for Reuben Donadel to add a fourth, before a late lapse allowed Toni Angelkoski to pull one back for the Eagles, a goal of little consolation to the team as they slipped further off the pace.
Wagga City Wanderers kept pace with Riverina rivals Yoogali as they scored a sixth victory of the season, in the process moving two points clear of third place, as they downed bottom-club Canberra Juventus 3-1 in another highly entertaining, and top-class performance, at Gissing Oval.
Much like Yoogali, the Wanderers needed to wait until the second-half to make the breakthrough, the travelling Juventus holding the high-flying Wanderers to a goalless stalemate in the opening stanza.
As has often been the case in 2023, it was Morris Kadzola who made the difference for Wagga, netting his tenth goal of the season seven minutes after the break as Wanderers went ahead. Moments later Jake Ploenges rifled in the second and suddenly there was daylight between the teams.
An own goal from Logan Flanagan raised brief hopes of an unlikely Juventus comeback, but that was snuffed out almost immediately as Chaise Donetto grabbed his second goal of the season to secure the home win.
A six-goal thriller at Queanbeyan’s High Street venue ended with Queanbeyan City and ANU FC sharing the honours as the two played out a thrilling 3-3 draw. Both sides led twice but had to settle for a point each, City remaining one point adrift of the University club who sit fourth and third respectively.
Abderrahim Dellahi put the hosts ahead after a mere nine minutes, only for Rory Spiers to level matter nine minutes later. An own goal from Marko Savkovic gave ANU FC the lead, but the teams were all-square again at the interval after Dellahi struck his second of the afternoon.
Spiers netted his sixth of the season to restore ANU FC’s lead at 3-2, only for Nikola Trajkovski to equalise once more, this time with eighteen minutes remaining to make sure both teams ended with a tangible reward from a romp in the winter sunshine.
RESULTS
ROUND 10
Saturday 17 June
Wagga City Wanderers 3 (Kadzola 52’, Ploenges 54’, Donetto 69’) Canberra Juventus 1 (Flanagan 69’ (og))
Queanbeyan City 3 (Dellahi 9’, 41’, Trajkovski 72’) ANU FC 3 (Spiers 18’, 65’, Savkovic 30’ (og))
White Eagles 1 (Angelkoski 90+5’) Yoogali SC 4 (De Rossi 64’, 73’, Bailey 71’ (p), R. Donadel 90+4’)
Belconnen United 2 (D’Addario 12’, Kemp 34’) Brindabella Blues 1 (Schaeffer 60’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Yoogali SC | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 31 | 14 | +17 | 22 |
| 2 | Wagga City Wanderers | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 30 | 18 | +12 | 18 |
| 3 | ANU FC | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 27 | 21 | +6 | 16 |
| 4 | Queanbeyan City | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 22 | -1 | 15 |
| 5 | Belconnen United | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 17 | 19 | -2 | 14 |
| 6 | Brindabella Blues | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 20 | -6 | 12 |
| 7 | White Eagles | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 26 | -9 | 7 |
| 8 | Canberra Juventus | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 31 | -16 | 7 |
TOP SCORERS
10 Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers)
8 Darren BAILEY (Yoogali SC), Zac LAWRENCE (White Eagles)
7 Niko ABOT (Queanbeyan City), Jake PLOENGES (Wagga City Wanderers), Own GOALS
6 Joshua DE ROSSI (Yoogali SC), Nathan DUCK (Canberra Juventus), Joe PREECE (Yoogali SC), Rory SPIERS (ANU FC)
5 Nicholas HOPE (ANU FC), Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues)
4 Mason DONADEL (Yoogali SC), Henry WILKS (Brindabella Blues)
3 Abderrahim DELLAHI (Queanbeyan City), Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), Steven KRESKAS (White Eagles), Andrew MANLEY (ANU FC), Nashwan SULAIMAN (Wagga City Wanderers)
2 Toni ANGELKOSKI (White Eagles), Gabriel AYUEL (Queanbeyan City), Nikolas BLASKOVIC (Brindabella Blues), Reuben DONADEL (Yoogali SC), Chaise DONETTO (Wagga City Wanderers), Jack GIBSON (ANU FC), Hussein FUREJE (Queanbeyan City), Monteagh Ryan GULEVSKI (Queanbeyan City), Tim LOPEZ (ANU FC), Nathan MATTHEWS (Canberra Juventus), David MCCARRON (Belconnen United), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Maxwell PREST (Wagga City Wanderers), Federico PROIA (Canberra Juventus), Nikola TRAJKOVSKI (Queanbeyan City), Hayden TUNNEY (Belconnen United), Luke VALLONE (Belconnen United), Thomas YONGAI (Wagga City Wanderers)
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), Robbie CATTANACH (Belconnen United), Charlie D’ADDARIO (Belconnen United), William DWIGHT (Canberra Juventus), GRACE (ANU FC), Oliver GRIST (ANU FC), David GURNEY (Brindabella Blues), Leo HADLEY (ANU FC), Andre JUGOVAC (Canberra Juventus), Christian JUNNA (Queanbeyan City), Roshan LAMICHHANE (White Eagles), Jacob LEONARD (Brindabella Blues), Zac MAYBURY (Belconnen United), Max MOTTL (ANU FC), Van NGUYEN (Canberra Juventus), Rowan PETERKIN (ANU FC), Michael PICCOLO (Queanbeyan City), Romain PINTO (Yoogali SC), Liam RAE (Belconnen United), Samuel RACITI (Yoogali SC), Dejan SANTRAC (White Eagles), Kolby SEARS (Yoogali SC), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United), Jamie WARD (Brindabella Blues), Jan WOJNA (ANU FC)
