Brindabella Blues fantastic run of form continued as they continued their unbeaten run of form to seven matches with a 4-2 defeat of Wagga City Wanderers in the Riverina, the hosts form having fallen away dramatically from their early season hopes of challenging for promotion.
The Blues weren’t without their scares at Gissing Oval however, as the home side came from 0-2 down to draw level, before Brindabella finished strongly to hit back and secure the points to keep the pressure on Queanbeyan City at the top of pile in the race for the National Premier League.
Curtis Schaeffer had given the Blues an early lead with his eighth goal of the season to date, an advantage that was doubled just two minutes into the second-half as Cuneyt Caglar made it 2-0. However, a quickfire double from Bryce Falepau brought Wagga back on terms and made for an exciting denouement.
Brindabella held their nerve though and regained the lead when Henry Wilks struck with seventeen minutes remaining, leading to Michael Nelson sealing the win with the fourth late on.
Queanbeyan City were able to maintain five-point lead at the top of the table and, more importantly, inflict a defeat on ANU FC that means the University club would still be seven-points adrift of the summit should they win their game in hand.
That was because City were 3-1 victors on the synthetic surface at Hawker Football Centre, having built a lead by half-time before the second-half became a more fractious affair, four yellow cards issued in the second stanza as two high-tempo teams squared off with no hold barred.
Earlier, a seventh goal of the season for striker Abderrahim Dellahi had Queanbeyan in front after just twenty-five minutes and, if the nature of that goalscorer was not much of a surprise, the second might have been as Marko Savkovic bagged a rare goal to restore the advantage to the visiting team in the 25th minute.
ANU FC had equalised just before the quarter hour mark as their leading marksman Jack Gibson took his season total into double figures. Only one player has more in the division and that is Argentine hitman Nico Abot who duly netted his customary goal just before the break to seal the points.
Belconnen United kept themselves in title contention, and significantly boosted their goal difference in the process, as they romped to a 7-0 win over Canberra Juventus at McKellar Park, a result that leaves the Blue Devils just six points of the top of the table, and the second-best goal difference in the league.
There was very little doubt as to where the points would be heading as the home side roared out of the blocks to lead 5-0 at the break, already home and hosed, with the only question being how many they might score against their beleaguered visitors.
Dustin Wells opened and closed the scoring in the first forty-five minutes, the veteran goal-getter moving onto eight goals for the Capital Premier League campaign, and rolling back the years once again, showing his class with a range of excellent passes and a goal from a trademark free-kick.
Abraham Kemp also had a first-half double to celebrate, Harry Billington adding his name to the growing tally as Belconnen flexed their muscles. After the break there were two further goals. David Reitstatter added to his growing reputation with the sixth, whilst Jake Bishop wrapped it all up with ten minutes remaining.
At the bottom of the table, West Canberra Wanderers moved off the foot, swapping places with their vanquished opponents White Eagles with a 3-0 win at Melrose Synthetic, albeit the Eagles still have one game in hand on the Wanderers.
West Canberra hadn’t won for five matches heading into this fixture, whilst Eagles won over Juventus in Round 11 had broken an eight-match losing sequence, so the chances were good that something had to give.
All the damage was done inside the opening half-an-hour in the early afternoon kick-off as Wanderers found themselves 3-0 ahead and in cruise control. Ethan Stamatis gave the home side a seventeenth minute lead from the penalty spot, before Baxter Donohoe made it two just eight minutes later.
Donohoe was at the double four minutes after that with the goal that effectively ended any hopes of an Eagles comeback. From there, Wanderers were able to see the game through and notch a second win of the campaign.
RESULTS
ROUND 12
28 June
ANU FC 1 (Gibson 14’) Queanbeyan City 3 (Dellahi 8’, Savkovic 25’, Abot 41’)
Wagga City Wanderers 2 (Falepau 57’, 61’) Brindabella Blues 4 (Schaeffer 6’, Caglar 47’, Wilks 73’, Nelson 90’)
Belconnen United 7 (Wells 14’, 45’, Kemp 34’, 41’, Billington 40’, Reitstatter 60’, Bishop 80’) Canberra Juventus 0
West Canberra Wanderers 3 (Stamatis 17’ (p), Donohoe 25’, 29’) White Eagles 0
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Queanbeyan City | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 41 | 8 | +33 | 29 |
| 2 | Brindabella Blues | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 33 | 20 | +13 | 24 |
| 3 | Belconnen United | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 34 | 12 | +22 | 23 |
| 4 | ANU FC | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 31 | 18 | +13 | 19 |
| 5 | Wagga City Wanderers | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 27 | 30 | -3 | 15 |
| 6 | Canberra Juventus | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 32 | -18 | 10 |
| 7 | West Canberra Wanderers | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 45 | -31 | 8 |
| 8 | White Eagles | 11 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 38 | -30 | 6 |
TOP SCORERS
19: Nico ABOT (Queanbeyan City)
10: Jack GIBSON (ANU FC)
8: Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (ANU FC), Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United)
7: Abderrahim DEALLAHI (Queanbeyan City)
6: Jake BISHOP (Belconnen United), Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers), Thomas YONGAI (Wagga City Wanderers)
5: Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), Virgil MOUTAUD (West Canberra Wanderers), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Jamie WARD (Brindabella Blues), Riley WILLIAMS (Brindabella Blues), Ollie WITRZENS (Brindabella Blues)
4: Harry BILLINGTON (Belconnen United), Nathan DUCK (Canberra Juventus), Misko NAUMOSKI (Queanbeyan City), Babin PAUDYAL (Belconnen United)
3: Zac CHADWICK (ANU FC), Baxter DONOHOE (West Canberra Wanderers), Nahuel GUERRERO (Queanbeyan City), Jayde JAMES-WARD (Belconnen United), Adrian MACOR (Canberra Juventus), Mohammed YANSANEH (Queanbeyan City), Own GOALS
2: Adam BROOKS (Canberra Juventus), Cuneyt CAGLAR (Brindabella Blues), Bryce FALEPAU (Wagga City Wanderers), Leo HADLEY (ANU FC), Ethan KRUG (ANU FC), Samson LUCAS (Wagga City Wanderers), Kade LYONS (Wagga City Wanderers), Braulio MELO (White Eagles), Max MOTTL (ANU FC), Michael NELSON (Brindabella Blues), Steven SRBINOSKI (Queanbeyan City), Henry WILKS (Brindabella Blues)
1: Wyatt ADAM (Wagga City Wanderers), Deng ALEER DENG (Brindabella Blues), Gabriel AYUEL (Queanbeyan City), Frazer BURNS (Canberra Juventus), Tom COSENTINI (Canberra Juventus), Liam CRISTOFANI (West Canberra Wanderers), Lachlan DENLEY (White Eagles), Daniel FELIZZI (Brindabella Blues), Daniel FOX (West Canberra Wanderers), Marcus GRZIC (White Eagles), Clayton GUNNING (West Canberra Wanderers), Jacob HART (ANU FC), Josh HICKMAN (White Eagles), Jack JANKE (Belconnen United), Bojan JANKULOSKI (West Canberra Wanderers), Steven KRESKAS (Queanbeyan City), Owen LEARMONTH (Brindabella Blues), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Alasdair MOORE (ANU FC), Tim NGUYEN (Belconnen United), Jacob OCHIENG (Wagga City Wanderers), Fahad RAMADHAN (Wagga City Wanderers), David REITSTATTER (Belconnen United), Nicholas ROUFAGALIS (Canberra Juventus), Marko SAVKOVIC (Queanbeyan City), Naser SMOQY (Wagga City Wanderers), Ethan STAMATIS (West Canberra Wanderers), Nashwan SULAIMAN (Wagga City Wanderers),Owen STEPHENSON (West Canberra Wanderers), Jai TEIN (Canberra Juventus), Luke VALLONE (Belconnen United), Liam VICKERS (White Eagles), Tao WANG (ANU FC), Isaac WEEKLEY (Brindabella Blues)
