A sensational five-star display away from home helped Brindabella Blues turn the race for the Capital League Finals on its head as they hammered Wagga City Wanderers 5-1 in a statement win that has them dreaming big of successive Grand Final appearances.
The Blues had the perfect start to the match, taking the lead inside the opening minute as striker Curtis Schaeffer caught the home defence cold to net his ninth goal of the season and stun the Wanderers.
It got worse for the home side as well, Henry Wilks adding the second in the 24th minute before goalkeeper Timothy Kross inadvertently steered the ball into his own net on the half-hour to increase the advantage to three.
Wanderers hit-man Jake Ploenges pulled one back before the break, but it was Brindabella who found the finish to take home the points, a brace of goals in the last seventeen minutes from Jamie Ward and Riley Williams, the latter scoring his first goal of the season, sealed an impressive and dominant performance.
A sixteenth goal of the season from Argentinean striker Niko Abot proved to the difference for Queanbeyan City as the men from across the border ramped up their title push even further with a narrow 1-0 win over White Eagles, returning from the Nest at Woden Park with a crucial three points.
City are now unbeaten in seven matches whilst their star striker has nine goals in his last five outings, finding form at the right end of the season to keep Queanbeyan in the mix for promotion, heaping the pressure back on Yoogali who played a day later.
Abot’s goal, scored three minutes into the second half, ensured that Queanbeyan won for the tenth time in the 2023 Capital Premier League campaign and kept the competitive, but luckless Eagles, rooted to the foot of the table.
Rory Spiers led the charge for ANU FC who kept up their chase for a top four placing by bagging a hat-trick as the University team thumped Canberra Juventus 5-1 at Ainslie on Saturday afternoon.
Spiers opened his account as early as the seventh minute, but it was a short-lived lead as the in-form Nathan Duck equalised just five minutes later, finding the net for the twelfth time this season, before Sachin Sirkari restored the ANU lead just before the half-hour mark with a well-taken goal.
ANU were the quickest out of the blocks in the second stanza, Spiers making it 3-1 in the 58th minute, before completing his treble, and securing the points six minutes later. Sirkari made the points secure a couple of minutes following that goal as ANU romped to a strong second-half showing.
Yoogali SC reasserted their lead at the top of the table at Solar Mad Stadium with a 2-0 win over Belconnen United to maintain their slight advantage over Queanbeyan City heading into the home stretch of the season.
There was little to choose between the teams for most of the match and it was the home side who made the critical breakthrough in the 23rd minutes as Mohammed Khanoussi found the net for the first time in the 2023 Capital Premier League campaign, a perfect time to get off the duck.
Yoogali enjoyed the perfect start to the second stanza as Joe Preece added a second, his eleventh goal of the season, a goal that was to prove to be decisive as the home team held off the Blue Devils as they inched towards the League title.
RESULTS
ROUND 18
Saturday 12 August
Wagga City Wanderers 1 (Ploenges 37’) Brindabella Blues 5 (Schaeffer 1’, Wilks 24’, Kross 30’ (og), Ward 73’ Williams 81’)
White Eagles 0 Queanbeyan City 1 (Abot 48’)
Canberra Juventus 1 (Duck 12’) ANU FC 5 (Spiers 7’, 58’, 64’, Sirkari 29’, 66’)
Sunday 13 August
Yoogali SC 2 (Khanoussi 23’, Preece 46’) Belconnen United 0
TABLE
P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
1 | Yoogali SC | 18 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 53 | 24 | +29 | 38 |
2 | Queanbeyan City | 17 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 34 | 28 | +6 | 34 |
3 | ANU FC | 18 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 40 | 36 | +4 | 25 |
4 | Brindabella Blues | 18 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 28 | 29 | -1 | 25 |
5 | Wagga City Wanderers | 17 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 41 | 35 | +6 | 23 |
6 | Belconnen United | 18 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 29 | 28 | +1 | 24 |
7 | Canberra Juventus | 18 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 26 | 53 | -27 | 15 |
8 | White Eagles | 18 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 21 | 38 | -17 | 12 |
TOP SCORERS
16 Niko ABOT (Queanbeyan City), Darren BAILEY (Yoogali SC)
14 Jake PLOENGES (Wagga City Wanderers)
13 Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers)
12 Nathan DUCK (Canberra Juventus)
11 Joshua DE ROSSI (Yoogali SC), Joe PREECE (Yoogali SC), Rory SPIERS (ANU FC)
10 Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues), Own GOALS
8 Zac LAWRENCE (White Eagles)
6 Hayden TUNNEY (Belconnen United), Henry WILKS (Brindabella Blues)
5 Nicholas HOPE (ANU FC)
4 Abderrahim DELLAHI (Queanbeyan City), Mason DONADEL (Yoogali SC), Andrew MANLEY (ANU FC), Liam RAE (Belconnen United), Jamie WARD (Brindabella Blues)
3 Gabriel AYUEL (Queanbeyan City), Reuben DONADEL (Yoogali SC), Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), Steven KRESKAS (White Eagles), Tim LOPEZ (ANU FC), Sachin SIRKARI (ANU FC), Nashwan SULAIMAN (Wagga City Wanderers), Nikola TRAJKOVSKI (Queanbeyan City), Thomas YONGAI (Wagga City Wanderers)
2 Toni ANGELKOSKI (White Eagles), Nikolas BLASKOVIC (Brindabella Blues), Adam BROOKS (Canberra Juventus), Chaise DONETTO (Wagga City Wanderers), Jack GIBSON (ANU FC), Hussein FUREJE (Queanbeyan City), Ryan GULEVSKI (Queanbeyan City), Andre JUGOVAC (Canberra Juventus), Nathan MATTHEWS (Canberra Juventus), David MCCARRON (Belconnen United), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Max MOTTL (ANU FC), Luca NOVOSEL (Canberra Juventus), Rowan PETERKIN (ANU FC), Maxwell PREST (Wagga City Wanderers), Federico PROIA (Canberra Juventus), Luke VALLONE (Belconnen United), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United)
1 Tyler ALLEN (Wagga City Wanderers), Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (ANU FC), Ohio ASIKHIA (White Eagles), Aleksander BELJANSKI (White Eagles), Harry BILLINGTON (Belconnen United), Phil BORGEAUD (Belconnen United), Jordan CACHIA (White Eagles), Cuneyt CAGLAR (White Eagles), David CARDER (Belconnen United), Robbie CATTANACH (Belconnen United), Charlie D’ADDARIO (Belconnen United), Chase DEANS (ANU FC), Jayden DEIGHAN-SMITH (Brindabella Blues), Bailey DICKINSON (Belconnen United), William DWIGHT (Canberra Juventus), Monteagh GRACE (ANU FC), Oliver GRIST (ANU FC), Nahuel GUERRERO (Queanbeyan City), David GURNEY (Brindabella Blues), Leo HADLEY (ANU FC), Josh HICKMAN (White Eagles), Christian JUNNA (Queanbeyan City), Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), Mohammed KHANOUSSI (Yoogali SC), Roshan LAMICHHANE (White Eagles), Jacob LEONARD (Brindabella Blues), Zac MAYBURY (Belconnen United), Daniel MUNOZ (Brindabella Blues), Tim NGUYEN (Belconnen United), Van NGUYEN (Canberra Juventus), Michael PICCOLO (Queanbeyan City), Romain PINTO (Yoogali SC), Samuel RACITI (Yoogali SC), Fahad RAMADHAN (Canberra Juventus), Robert RIMMER (Yoogali SC), Dejan SANTRAC (White Eagles), Kolby SEARS (Yoogali SC), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Riley WILLIAMS (Brindabella Blues), Jan WOJNA (ANU FC)