O’Connor Knights cemented their status inside the top four by extending the gap over Canberra Olympic to four points on Monday night with a 3-1 victory over West Canberra Wanderers in the rearranged Round 1 catch-up match played at Melrose Synthetic, now known as Wanderers Park.
Again, as has often been the case in the 2022 National Premier League season, the Wanderers arguably did enough to warrant something from the match, but some naïve defending and a rampant Knights start to the second forty-five minutes ultimately made the difference on a chilly evening in Canberra.
After a goalless first half, in which both goalkeepers were forced into making smart saves down low, Jakeb Wiseman in the Wanderers goal from Connor Mynott-Smith and Jack Miller up the other end from Wanderers main marksman Jenno Ceruti, the fixture burst into life at the start of the second period.
Barely 25 seconds had passed from the resumption when Mynott-Smith lofted a ball to the back post where Phakedi Manda arrived unmarked to volley home. The lead was then doubled just five minutes later as, following an uncharacteristic error from Wiseman, O’Rourke bundled home his eighth goal of the season from close range.
Wanderers thought they had given themselves a glimmer of hope in the 65th minute as Babin Paudyal met a cross with a firm header that beat Miller across goal, but that faded within thirty seconds of the restart as Manda improbably squeezed home a strike from the most acute of angles.
That proved too much for Wanderers to cope with, and they remain rooted to the bottom of the pile, despite a bright end to the match in which Miller was forced into making a world-class stop from a dipping Angus Bailey drive.
RESULTS
ROUND 1
Monday 11 July
West Canberra Wanderers 1 (Paudyal 65’) O’Connor Knights 3 (Manda 46’, 66’, O’Rourke 51’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Canberra Croatia | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | +18 | 27 |
| 2 | Gungahlin United | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | +14 | 26 |
| 3 | Monaro Panthers | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | +14 | 22 |
| 4 | O’Connor Knights | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 17 |
| 5 | Canberra Olympic | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -11 | 13 |
| 6 | Tigers FC | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | -6 | 11 |
| 7 | Belconnen United | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | -17 | 10 |
| 8 | West Canberra Wanderers | 12 | 1 | 3 | 8 | -9 | 6 |
