The surprise result in IPL Round 7 was undoubtedly Wollongong Olympics’ mauling of defending champions, Port Kembla at Wetherall Park.

It wasn’t so much the win by Olympic but the astonishing score-line of five goals to nil was ‘out of left field’ to say the least.

The visitor’s bright start to the game which yielded two goals in the opening 17 minutes was the platform for this memorable victory. Kyle Hazebroek with the first of his brace in the 8^th minute was first on the scoresheet followed nine minutes later by Justin Potter.

Port were shell shocked by this early on-slaught and were unable to recover with Olympic really going on with the job in the second half with substitute Nathan Minutillo helping himself to a double on 66 & 80 minutes before Hazebroek rounded off the scoring seven minutes from time.

It would be fair to say that Port Kembla have not enjoyed the best of starts in their bid to defend the title that they won so convincingly in 2013 having won just the one  game from their six starts this time around. Injuries to a couple of key players has not helped the cause and Coach of the Year, Stuart Beedie is going to have to work overtime if his side are going to go back to back in 2014.

Dapto Dandaloo has kept hold of top spot (albeit on goal difference from Olympic) after coming out on top in another five goal thriller (third in a row), this time against Albion Park WE at Terry Reserve.

Once again they did it the hard way by coming from behind in this latest three goals to two victory.

In a game that ebbed and flowed for the full 90 minutes, the Fury took the lead after 23 minutes with a goal from Sam Munro but the home side hit back six minutes later when Doug Woodiwiss equalised.

The White Eagles finished the half strongly and held the lead at the interval after Andrej Gacesa scored minutes from the break.

Just like they did the week before against Bulli, the Fury came out of the blocks firing straight from the re-start and were back in front with two goals in a five minute spell to Noel Spencer (59’) and one of the new signings, Joseph Crowley, with his first goal for his new club, scoring what proved to be the winner on 64 minutes.

Both sides continued to push forward at every opportunity but both defences held firm with no further goals added in the last 25 minutes.

There was another stirring contest with some late drama at Tarrawanna Oval where Tarrawanna locked horns with Wollongong United who battled out a two all-darw.

The Blueys Blaise Gassin opened the scoring in just the 4^th minute but this was cancelled out by one of United’s new off season signings, Johnny Martinoski.

Tarrawanna lost one of their key players mid-way through the first half, when dynamic striker, Ilija Prenzoski was forced off with injury and replaced by Todd Simpson.

Simpson didn’t waste time making his presence felt and scored four minutes out from half-time to give the home side the lead as the teams switched ends.

Bluey’s Coach Luke Maguire would be more than happy to have converted Simpson from defender to striker since coming to the club as the young convert has scored some important goals for his team over the last two seasons.

Tarrawanna continued to take the game to United but were unable to turn their lion’s share of possession into goals even though they created a lot of opportunities.

They were eventually made to pay for their poor conversion rate when Robbie Shields pounced on a loose ball in the Bluey’s penalty area to ram home the equaliser seven minutes from time.

Tempers began to fray as the game drew to a close with a nasty flare up close to the finish. Two opposing players came together in a rather tough challenge for the ball which resulted in a number of players getting involved to add more spice to the incident. A couple of yellow cards were issued in the aftermath to settle things down.

That wasn’t the end of the drama with Tarrawanna awarded a penalty right on full time for a hand ball. United’s Martinoski was then red carded for expressing his opinion to the Referee about the decision.

Vaughan Patterson was given the responsibility of winning the game for the Bluey’s but unfortunately for the home side, Patterson was unable to beat Sam Nastic in the United goal and the teams had to settle for a share of the points in the absorbing draw.

Cringila Lions, climbed off the bottom of the table in scoring their first win of the season in defeating ‘win-less’ Fernhill by two goals to one at Crehan Park with all three gaols scored in the opening half.

Dominic Magill started the ball rolling for the victors with a 12^th minute goal before Scott Regent equalised with his first goal for his new club on the half-hour mark.

The winner came four minutes from the half time whistle with Esala Ali on hand to finish off a fine passing movement from the home side.

Bulli recorded a comfortable win against the League’s ‘new boys’ Bellambi at Balls Paddock by three goals to one.

In a game in which they dominated possession from the opening whistle, the home side took a while to get the scoreboard rolling but eventually opened the scoring on 28 minutes when Matthew Naylor converted from the penalty spot.

That lead was doubled eight minutes later when Naylor released a defence splitting pass to Ben McDonald who scored with a neat turn and good strike from just inside the penalty area.

No more goals prior to the interval and Bellambi were proving hard to break down with their ability to close opposition players down very quickly coupled with an abundance of enthusiasm.

The second half was played in much the vein as the first with the Bulli side seeing plenty of ball but failing to capitalise with some poor passing out of midfield being a downside.

Bellambi suffered a bit of a set- back ten minutes into the second period  when they were reduced to ten men with Lee White’s double yellow meaning he had first use of the showers.

Ironically, Bellambi had their best spell going forward after White’s dismissal and with their dogged defensive efforts were able to provide a rare attacking opportunity with Ben Moerman rewarded for his high work rate in attack when he scored 14 minutes from time after hitting a post a couple of minutes later.

Bulli were able to seal the three points, which there play on the deserved four minutes after Moerman’ s goal when McDonald scored his second of the match.

Hopefully, these two goals will give McDonald’s confidence a boost as he has been out of sorts of late.

In the remaining game at Ocean Park, Woonona and South Coast United fired blanks in a nil-nil draw.

Both sides are becoming somewhat of a draw specialists with the teams notching up four draws each from the six games that they have played thus far.