Queanbeyan City underlined their promotion credentials with a comprehensive 3-0 success over Belconnen United at High Street in Queanbeyan in Round 4, to open up a two-point lead at the top of the Capital Premier League.
City once again proved impregnable in defence, keeping a third consecutive clean-sheet, having not conceded a single league goal in their opening trio of fixtures in this division. With Blue Devils also harbouring ambitions of NPL action in 2024, this was a huge psychological boost for the hosts.
Forward Abderrahim Dellahi opened the scoring before half-time, but it was the second of the afternoon netted by the same man, his third goal of a productive start to the season, nine minutes into the second-half, that was the killer blow from which Belconnen was unable to recover.
A third, struck with ten minutes of the match remaining by Misko Naumoski, put the icing on a very tasty Queanbeyan cake ahead of their midweek Australia Cup Qualifying match with reigning NPL League Champions O’Connor Knights at Woden Park.
ANU FC moved into second place on the ladder on goal difference after heaping yet more woe on West Canberra Wanderers with a convincing and thumping 6-1 victory at ANU South Oval.
Wanderers have now conceded twenty-one goals in their last three competitive matches and must stem the flow of goals sooner, rather than later, if they are to avoid successive relegations.
The University team were ahead in eighteen minutes via a Hassan Alnuwaysir strike, before quickfire goals before the interval from Ethan Krug and Alasdair Moore secured the points before the half was up.
Wanderers gave themselves a glimmer of hope when French import Virgil Moutaud scored, but ANU responded with two goals in two minutes as Max Mottl and Krug increased the lead to 5-1. When Alnuwaysir scored again, just five minutes later, it completed a comfortable home success.
Brindabella Blues are fourth on the table after they inflicted a second successive 5-0 loss on White Eagles, the Blues in irrepressible form as they blitzed the hosts in an excellent display at Woden Park.
Riley Williams had the Blues in front just past the quarter hour mark with his first goal of the season, before regular hitman Curtis Schaeffer doubled the advantage just before half-time.
A brace from Jamie Ward had the Blues home and dry as the Eagles weekend went from bad to worse with Schaeffer sealing a magnificent win by adding the fifth with ten minutes to play, fittingly the striker’s fifth goal of what has been a very productive start to the season.
A seven-goal thriller went the way of the visiting Wagga City Wanderers at Ainslie Oval as the guests from the Riverina defeated Canberra Juventus 4-3. Only a brace of late penalties gave Juventus hope of snatching something from the game as Wagga showed they are a force to be reckoned with.
Jai Tein struck after just five minutes to put Juventus in front, but their afternoon went downhill from the moment that Nashwan Sulaiman equalised in then tenth minute. There were no further goals in the first-half, but the Wanderers soon rectified that as Zac Steele edged them ahead four minutes after the resumption.
A brace of goals from Thomas Yongai, scored within four minutes of each other with less than a quarter of an hour to play, took the Wanderers player to four for the campaign and appeared to secure the win. Nathan Duck made it a squeaky ending, the Juventus striker scoring twice from the spot, but Wagga held on for the three points.
RESULTS
ROUND 4
27 April
Queanbeyan City 3 (Dellahi 40′, 54’, Naumoski 80’) Belconnen United 0
White Eagles 0 Brindabella Blues 5 (Williams 16’, Schaeffer 40’, 80’, Ward 55’, 58’)
ANU FC 6 (Alnuwaysir 18’, 70’, Krug 38’, 67’, Moore 43’, Mottl 65’) West Canberra Wanderers 1 (Moutaud 61’)
Canberra Juventus 3 (Tein 5’, Duck 85’ (p), 90’ (p)) Wagga City Wanderers 4 (Sulaiman 10’, Steele 49’, Yongai 75’, 79’)
TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | Queanbeyan City | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | +10 | 9 |
| 2 | ANU FC | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 4 | +9 | 7 |
| 3 | Wagga City Wanderers | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 7 |
| 4 | Belconnen United | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 4 | +6 | 6 |
| 5 | Brindabella Blues | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 6 |
| 6 | White Eagles | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 3 |
| 7 | Canberra Juventus | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 11 | -7 | 0 |
| 8 | West Canberra Wanderers | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 18 | -16 | 0 |
TOP SCORERS
5: Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (ANU FC), Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues)
4: Thomas YONGAI (Wagga City Wanderers)
3: Nico ABOT (Queanbeyan City), Abderrahim DEALLAHI (Queanbeyan City), Nathan DUCK (Canberra Juventus), Misko NAUMOSKI (Queanbeyan City), Babin PAUDYAL (Belconnen United), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United)
2: Jack GIBSON (ANU FC), Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers), Ethan KRUG (ANU FC), Jamie WARD (Brindabella Blues)
1: Harry BILLINGTON (Belconnen United), Marcus GRZIC (White Eagles), Jacob HART (ANU FC), Jack JANKE (Belconnen United), Bojan JANKULOSKI (West Canberra Wanderers), Steven KRESKAS (Queanbeyan City), Braulio MELO (White Eagles), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Alasdair MOORE (ANU FC), Max MOTTL (ANU FC), Virgil MOUTAUD (West Canberra Wanderers), Michael NELSON (Brindabella Blues), Jacob OCHIENG (Wagga City Wanderers), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Nashwan SULAIMAN (Wagga City Wanderers), Jai TEIN (Canberra Juventus), Luke VALLONE (Belconnen United), Liam VICKERS (White Eagles), Tao WANG (ANU FC), Riley WILLIAMS (Brindabella Blues)
