Young forward Seth Bonnet emerged from the bench to score twice as a much-changed Queanbeyan City, missing Golden Boot leading scorer Niko Abot, still had far too much for West Canberra Wanderers, securing another three points with a 4-0 victory in the early afternoon kick-off at Melrose Synthetic.
Bonnet struck twice in the final quarter-of-an-hour of the contest, having come on for first goalscorer Gabriel Ayuel, putting the seal on the points and moving Queanbeyan ever closer to the Holy Grail of promotion to the National Premier League as they consolidated their eight-point lead at the top of the table after Round 16.
The Capital Premier League leaders were quick out of the blocks against the Wanderers, netting twice in the opening twenty-five minutes of the match as Ayuel scored his third of the campaign, before Mark Shields bagged his first since re-signing for the club in June.
Wanderers remain one off the foot of the league table, two points ahead of White Eagles who now have three matches in hand on the teams above them following another postponement. Their scheduled fixture with Canberra Juventus, switched to Lyneham on short notice, was postponed due to what was deemed to be an unplayable surface.
Belconnen United remain just about in touch with City, having emerged from their trip to the Riverina with a satisfying win in a match that will have been entertaining for any neutrals watching as they saw off the home team, Wagga City Wanderers, 5-2 at Gissing Oval.
The visitors got off to the perfect start by taking the lead in only the second minute of the match as midfield maestro David Reitstatter continued his purple-patch in front of goal with his seventh in the last five outings, proving a handy source of goal inspiration for the Blue Devils.
They weren’t to have it all their own way in the opening half though as Wagga hit back to level just seven minutes later through a first of the season for Nathan Singh. And yet, back came Belconnen as David Carder restored their lead in the nineteenth minute. More was to come though.
Wanderers equalised again a minute before the interval as Morris Kadzola coolly converted from the penalty spot, his seventh of the 2024 CPL season, only for veteran striker Dustin Wells to put Belconnen ahead at the break with the fifth goal of a breathless opening stanza.
The second-half wasn’t quite as dramatic, the killer goal being the fourth for the visiting team in the 57th minute, the unfortunate Singh putting past his own goalkeeper. That set the stage for Babin Paudyal to seal the points with Belconnen’s fifth goal with sixteen minutes remaining.
ANU FC moved to within a point of Brindabella Blues in third place on the CPL league table as they inflicted a first defeat on the hosts in eleven matches, claiming their third win in succession in the process, as they turned on the style to claim a 4-0 victory at Ipan Park in Calwell.
With a brace of games in hand on those above them, the University team are hitting their straps at the right time and got off to the proverbial flyer when taking the lead within the first minute of the match when leading scorer Jack Gibson, inevitably, found the target.
More was to come before half-time as ANU struck again two minutes before the interval break as Hassan Alnuwaysir steered home his ninth goal of the campaign. As if to rub salt into the wounds, the visitors claimed a third right on the cusp of the whistle as Gibson battered home his fifteenth of the year.
With the points relatively secure, ANU could begin to enjoy themselves and they scored a fourth twenty minutes into the second stanza as Jacob Hart concluded a superb afternoon’s work for the team who will fancy their chances in finals football and will be a real threat who might still be in with an outside chance of the title.
RESULTS
ROUND 16
27 July
West Canberra Wanderers 0 Queanbeyan City 4 (Ayuel 13’, Shields 25’, Bonnet 75’, 83’)
Wagga City Wanderers 2 (Singh 9’, Kadzola 44’ (p)) Belconnen United 5 (Reitstatter 2’. Carder 19’, Wells 45’, Singh 57’ (og), Paudyal 74’)
Brindabella Blues 0 ANU FC 4 (Gibson 1’, 45’, Alnuwaysir 43’, Hart 65’)
White Eagles v Canberra Juventus – Match Postponed
TABLE
P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | ||
1 | Queanbeyan City | 16 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 57 | 9 | +48 | 41 |
2 | Belconnen United | 16 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 52 | 18 | +34 | 33 |
3 | Brindabella Blues | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 41 | 28 | +13 | 29 |
4 | ANU FC | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 40 | 20 | +20 | 28 |
5 | Wagga City Wanderers | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 33 | 42 | -9 | 18 |
6 | Canberra Juventus | 15 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 16 | 41 | -25 | 11 |
7 | West Canberra Wanderers | 16 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 17 | 62 | -45 | 8 |
8 | White Eagles | 13 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 46 | -37 | 6 |
TOP SCORERS
24: Nico ABOT (Queanbeyan City)
15: Jack GIBSON (ANU FC)
10: Jake BISHOP (Belconnen United), Abderrahim DEALLAHI (Queanbeyan City), Curtis SCHAEFFER (Brindabella Blues)
9: Hassan ALNUWAYSIR (ANU FC), Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United)
7: David REITSTATTER (Belconnen United), Morris KADZOLA (Wagga City Wanderers), Thomas YONGAI (Wagga City Wanderers)
6: Abraham KEMP (Belconnen United), Babin PAUDYAL (Belconnen United), Zac STEELE (Wagga City Wanderers), Riley WILLIAMS (Brindabella Blues), Ollie WITRZENS (Brindabella Blues)
5: Baxter DONOHOE (West Canberra Wanderers), Virgil MOUTAUD (West Canberra Wanderers), Own GOALS
4: Harry BILLINGTON (Belconnen United), Nathan DUCK (Canberra Juventus), Nahuel GUERRERO (Queanbeyan City), Misko (Queanbeyan City), Mohammed YANSANEH (Queanbeyan City)
3: Gabriel AYUEL (Queanbeyan City), Cuneyt CAGLAR (Brindabella Blues), Zac CHADWICK (ANU FC), Jacob HART (ANU FC), Jayde JAMES-WARD (Belconnen United), Kade LYONS (Wagga City Wanderers), Adrian MACOR (Canberra Juventus), Alasdair MOORE (ANU FC), Michael NELSON (Brindabella Blues), Henry WILKS (Brindabella Blues)
2: Seth BONNET (Queanbeyan City), Adam BROOKS (Canberra Juventus), Frazer BURNS (Canberra Juventus), Liam CRISTOFANI (West Canberra Wanderers), Bryce FALEPAU (Wagga City Wanderers), Leo HADLEY (ANU FC), Ethan KRUG (ANU FC), Samson LUCAS (Wagga City Wanderers), Braulio MELO (White Eagles), Max MOTTL (ANU FC), Marko SAVKOVIC (Queanbeyan City), Steven SRBINOSKI (Queanbeyan City), Luke VALLONE (Belconnen United)
1: Wyatt ADAM (Wagga City Wanderers), Deng ALEER DENG (Brindabella Blues), David CARDER (Belconnen United), Tom COSENTINI (Canberra Juventus), Lachlan DENLEY (White Eagles), Daniel FELIZZI (Brindabella Blues), Daniel FOX (West Canberra Wanderers), Marcus GRZIC (White Eagles), Clayton GUNNING (West Canberra Wanderers), Josh HICKMAN (White Eagles), Jack JANKE (Belconnen United), Bojan JANKULOSKI (West Canberra Wanderers), Deakin JEWELL (Belconnen United), Steven KRESKAS (Queanbeyan City), Owen LEARMONTH (Brindabella Blues),Tony MADDAFARI (Canberra Juventus), Goran MILUTINOVIC (White Eagles), Tim NGUYEN (Belconnen United), Jacob OCHIENG (Wagga City Wanderers), Maxwell PREST (Wagga City Wanderers), Fahad RAMADHAN (Wagga City Wanderers), Nicholas ROUFAGALIS (Canberra Juventus), Mark SHIELDS (Queanbeyan City), Nathan SINGH, Naser SMOQY (Wagga City Wanderers), Ethan STAMATIS (West Canberra Wanderers), Nashwan SULAIMAN (Wagga City Wanderers),Owen STEPHENSON (West Canberra Wanderers), Jai TEIN (Canberra Juventus), Reece UPTON (White Eagles), Liam VICKERS (White Eagles), Tao WANG (ANU FC), Isaac WEEKLEY (Brindabella Blues)