Brindabella Blues secured the final place in the top four, and with it, finals football, following a nerve-shredding weekend of action in the Capital Premier League. The Blues needed a win over Wagga City Wanderers, and White Eagles to fall to Tuggeranong United in order to stay alive, and that’s exactly how it panned out.
The Brindabella Blues gained the win they needed in the Riverina against Wagga City Wanderers courtesy of a 70th minute goal from in-form striker Curtis Schaeffer. Schaeffer scored for the third successive match and has now been responsible for five of the last six Blues goals.
It was his ninth of the season, and put Brindabella into the top four, ending any hopes that the Wanderers had of continuing their end of season upsurge in form. Wagga City end the campaign in 6th, only three points off the final’s places.
There was an anxious wait for the Blues as they waited on news from Hawker Football Centre, the venue for the White Eagles versus Tuggeranong United match, the fixture having been moved from the waterlogged Woden Park.
Eagles were in the hunt for fourth place for large swathes of the match, knowing that any goal would be enough to keep their season going as their goal difference was superior to both those of the Blues and the Wanderers. But the League Champions were in no mood to give helping hand.
It took until four minutes from time for Tuggeranong United to break the deadlock and move towards a half-century of points and the goal, when it eventually arrived, came from a rather unlikely source as Lewis Kaminski netted his first goal of the season to put the visitors into the lead.
United were able to seal the win, and end the Eagles season in the process, in the final minute as Sam Walker struck his 20th goal of the season, a goal that ensured the United hit-man was also able to claim the Capital Premier League Golden Boot.
At the top end of the table Queanbeyan City claimed the three points they needed to solidify second place and a shot at Tuggeranong United in the Qualification Final with a narrow 2-1 away win against Yoogali SC in a fixture that was played in Yenda, just outside of Griffith.
It usually takes teams a while to warm up after a long coach trip interstate, but City made lie of that assumption as they scored twice inside the opening eight minutes of the contest to take an early hold on proceedings.
Abderrahim Dellahi netted in the third minute to give Goran Josifovski’s team the perfect opening and when Andrew Sellers added a second a mere five minutes later, Queanbeyan were in the driving seat and, seemingly, well on the way to the points that they seriously needed.
Yoogali struck back when Joe Preece reduced the deficit in the 17th minute to bring the contest back to life but neither side were able to add to the scoreboard and Queanbeyan ended the match as victors.
That result meant that no matter what ANU FC did, they could not regain second place from Queanbeyan City and had to settle for third, a place on the table they cemented with a 3-1 win over bottom-of-the-table Weston-Molonglo FC.
With the win, ANU FC will face Brindabella Blues in the Elimination Final, the winners progressing to the Preliminary Final and a fixture against the losers of the Qualification Final between Tuggeranong United and Queanbeyan.
Roshan Lamichhane scored for the second week in a row to put the Magpies into a first-half lead, an advantage they held until the 53rd minute when Rory Spiers equalised with his sixth goal of the campaign.
Chase Deans made sure ANU FC would emerge as the winners, his brace of goals in the 61st and 89th minute ensuring he moved onto sixteen goals for the season, ending a point off second place.
RESULTS
Saturday 10 September
Wagga City Wanderers 0 Brindabella Blues 1 (Schaeffer 70’)
Weston-Molonglo FC 1 (Lamichhane 21’) ANU FC 3 (Spiers 53’, Deans 61’, 86’)
White Eagles 0 Tuggeranong United 2 (Kaminski 86’, Walker 90’)
Yoogali SC 1 (Preece 17’) Queanbeyan City 2 (Dellahi 3’, Sellers 8’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Tuggeranong United (c) | 21 | 16 | 2 | 3 | +59 | 50 |
| 2 | Queanbeyan City | 21 | 13 | 3 | 5 | +13 | 42 |
| 3 | ANU FC | 21 | 13 | 2 | 6 | +20 | 41 |
| 4 | Brindabella Blues | 21 | 9 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 31 |
| 5 | White Eagles | 21 | 8 | 4 | 9 | +12 | 28 |
| 6 | Wagga City Wanderers | 21 | 9 | 1 | 11 | -15 | 28 |
| 7 | Yoogali SC | 21 | 5 | 3 | 13 | -20 | 18 |
| 8 | Weston-Molonglo FC | 21 | 1 | 1 | 19 | -60 | 4 |
