Kemblawarra Fury stormed to the top of the Illawarra Mercury Premier League ladder with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Wollongong Olympic at Albert Butler Memorial Park on Sunday. After their main rivals at the top of the ladder dropped points on Saturday, the Fury just needed to win by any margin to take top spot for the first time this season.

Once Matthew McNab had given the home side the lead in the 15th minute with his seventh strike of the IPL season, the result never looked in doubt. Sam Munro doubled the lead with a beauty from 30 yards out just past the half hour and Robbie Shields put the game to bed before half time with a superb free kick from even further out.

The nearest Olympic came to scoring was when a Kyle Hazebroek header was cleared off the line by Munro. If that effort had gone in when Olympic were just two down, we might have been looking at a completely different match, but the visitors looked toothless in the second half and rarely threatened the Fury goal.

Fury coach Luke Maguire was pleased to see his players get the result: “I don’t think we played our best football today, but we were solid and always in control. Even with a makeshift backline, including two youth graders who did really well today, we didn’t see any real drama in our area. It was good for us across the park today.”

With Tyson Rhodes and Shane Lyons missing today, the Fury started with captain Alvin Ceccoli playing at left back and striker Sang Ho Lee playing just in front of the back four.

The opening exchanges were tight, with neither side able to get a clear sight of goal. Yusuke Ueda did manage a nice turn in the area for Olympic, though his shot was easily taken by David Poeira.
It was Shane Murray whose pass from half way suddenly opened the game up, splitting the Olympic defence, and finding McNab running on into the area. The Fury striker rarely misses from that position and today was no different, with a right foot shot that was steered out of Hayden Durose’s reach in the Olympic goal.

Moments later McNab almost nicked a second, when Shields’ shot from the edge of the area was only parried by Durose into the path of the Fury centre forward, but Jack Keating put in a vital tackle to prevent an almost certain goal.

Olympic coach Rob Birkin made an early change, bringing on striker Wandi Jajaw for Isaac Lee. But before Jajaw had even had a touch of the ball, his side had fallen further behind.
This time it was Ho Lee on the edge of the area who teed up Munro, whose 30 yard blast was unstoppable and flew into the back of the net.

For a brief moment, Olympic responded and forced a corner down the left. It swung in to Hazebroek-Southgate who saw his header cleared off the line by Munro at the far post. But two minutes later, instead of being 2-1, the score was 3-0 after a beautiful strike from Shields.

It was Brenton Rhodes who won the free kick about 35 yards out. Shields stepped up and powered the ball past the wall and beyond a despairing Durose to deal Olympic the killer blow with only 38 minutes played.

Captain Brendan Fordham tried to lift his players after the break, setting up Jajaw just after the restart, but this time Murray put in the brave challenge to deny the Olympic forward a shot. And then it was Murray again who blocked Ja Kon Yu as the midfielder bore down on goal.

This was Olympic’s best period of the game and they came close again just before the hour mark, when Jajaw was brought down just outside the area. Fordham took the free-kick which Poeira only managed to parry, but Josh Mears was there to clear up this time before any marauding Olympic attacker could pounce.

For the last half hour of the match, though, chances at either end were few and far between, and the tie drifted towards the inevitable result.

Fabian Iacovelli curled a left foot cross onto the head of an unmarked Munro, but he somehow missed the target, when a further goal looked certain for the Fury.

At the other end, Fordham forced a further save out of Poeira when he stormed in from the right at a tight angle. But there was to be no consolation goal for Olympic today. When Fordham played a final long ball to the feet of Jajaw on the edge of the area in the 90th minute, it was typical of Olympic’s afternoon that the ball landed on Jajaw’s toes and flew on for a goal kick before the striker could bring the ball under control.

The defeat leaves Wollongong Olympic in mid-table but only three points adrift of a top five spot if they could just string a couple of wins together.

For the Fury, all eyes will be on their injury list, where Brenton Rhodes joined his brother today to add to Maguire’s headaches. On the evidence of today’s performance, he has the squad to deal with these injuries, and as the season progresses other squads will be tested in the same way. Next up for the ladder leaders is a visit to Shell Cove, where the Fury will be looking to make it six wins on the trot.

Kemblawarra Fury – 3 (McNab 15', Munro 34', Shields 38’)
Wollongong Olympic – 0

Sunday 1 May 2016
Albert Butler Memorial Park

Referee: Steven Bozic
Assistant referees: Nick Ryan, John Ruscica

Kemblawarra Fury: David Poeira, Lachlan O’Connor, Sang Ho Lee, Josh Mears, Brenton Rhodes (Kyle Senior 75’), Shane Murray, Fabian Iacovelli, Alvin Ceccoli, Matthew McNab (Cameron Morgan 60’), Robbie Shields, Sam Munro (subs not used: Blake Friedrich, Jason Zufic)

Wollongong Olympic: Hayden Durose, Haydyn Lloyd, Ja Kon Yu, Jake Duczynski, Jack Keating, Harvey Rodriguez, Brendan Fordham, Sam Gordon, Yusuke Ueda, Isaac Lee (Wandi Jajaw 29’), Kyle Hazebroek-Southgate (Andrej Gacesa 67’) (subs not used: Nathan Sutcliffe, Rick de Boer, Rodney Lewin)

Report by Simon Duffin
Photo courtesy of Nichole Mears (Kemblawarra Fury)