The Albion Park White Eagles claimed a convincing 1-nil victory over a struggling Tarrawanna team at Elizabeth Park on the weekend.

From the opening whistle, the Albion Park forwards asserted themselves on the match, controlling possession and looking dangerous in their counter-attacking runs.

Being forced onto the back foot, Tarrawanna did well to stifle the scoring opportunities created by Albion Park, initially setting a solid defensive pattern with their backs.

However, the will of Albion Park to upset the Tarrawanna defence produced a result midway through the first half, with Jack Balmforth scoring from defensive error by Tarrawanna in their goal area.

Having dented the confidence of Tarrawanna, Albion Park used their dominance in possession to increase the tempo of general play, which under the hot conditions made it difficult for Tarrawanna to gain parity in the score-line.

As the end of the first half drew closer, Tarrawanna found that their attacking plays were severely lacking, with Albion Park moving up in defence with pace and rendering their attempts at goal ineffective.

The woes for Tarrawanna continued, with Matt Mazevski having to be carried from the pitch with a serious leg injury.

Tarrawanna attempted to claw their way back into the match from the beginning of the second half, upping the intensity of their defence and thereby finding themselves with some more scoring opportunities than they had in the first.

But Albion Park responded to the pressure well, with Shawn McRae and Javier Ovando combining well for some dangerous plays that placed the pressure back on Tarrawanna, despite their more insistent counter-attack.

Once Albion Park began to control possession once again, confidence seemed to fall away from Tarrawanna, who were slow to play the ball forward and left defensive gaps that Albion Park duly exploited.

It was clear that Albion Park wished to put more goals on, and despite their excellent mid-field control and the gaps in defence left by Tarrawanna, were unable to break away from their opponents as the second half wore on.

It was especially excruciating for Albion Park’s Peter Prandalos, who had wide-open shots on goal on four separate occasions, but was unable to find the net thanks to the stoic efforts of Tarrawanna’s David Hamilton in goal, who single-handedly prevented a blowout in the score-line late in the second half.

Despite a dominant display from Albion Park, they were forced to settle for a 1-nil victory at the final whistle.

Albion Park’s coach, Jeff Allport was positive about the victory, “possession-wise it was really good, each game that we’ve played has been an improvement and it was again today which was good.

“On another day we would’ve won that by a lot more goals, but [I was] very pleased.”

 

Albion Park – 1 (Balmforth)

Tarrawanna – 0

 

Sunday 6^th of March, 2016

Elizabeth Park

 

Referee – Blake Herbert

Assistants – Nathan Wotton, Emma Hayes

 

Albion Park – Daenell, Fielding, Every, Dafkovski, Nathaniel, Patterson, McRae, Jones, Caric, Ovando, Balmforth (Prandalos, Dujkic, Domine, Del-Turco, Ahling)

Tarrawanna – Hamilton, Mortimer, Morgan, Young, Morlando, Carrigan, Fryday, Chapple, Mushaba, Mazevski. Isabella (Dolinscak Goodchild, Awono, Chapman, Pretto)

 

Photo and story by Oliver Chaseling