In a jam packed second half, Cringila overcame Wollongong United edging them out 4-3 in an exciting contest at Crehan Park on Sunday. The home team were dominant for most of the first half, but faced a late resurgence by United gave the spectators a thrilling final 20 minutes of back-and-forth football.

United set the pace early in the match, stringing together a series of attacking runs, which gave the impression that the visitors were looking to stamp their authority on the match.

Cringila struggled to make their offensive plays in the opening 20 minutes with some impatient passes giving United the upper hand in the 1-on-1’s.

With United’s Johnny Martinoski causing problems for the home side in attack, United looked to be establishing a solid run of play, and despite Cringila scrambling well in defence, they looked set to score the opening goal within minutes.

But, in a dramatic turn that may have affected the outcome of the entire game, United’s goal-keeper Sam Nastic, was shown the red-card after he cynically took out an attacker, who was perfectly set up to score after a clean break on 24 minutes.

Daniel Atkins hit the resulting free-kick sweetly to put Cringila ahead and give them an unlikely advantage for the rest of the half.

With one man down, United did well to limit Cringila to that one goal for the remainder of the first, given that the momentum and the confidence had swung back to Cringila.

With just one goal the difference at the opening of the second half, both teams looked to be trying to gain consistency in attack, without giving their opposition too much room to move. Both sides probed at the edges of the opposition, producing some solid opportunities with no payoff.

That is until United turned the table on Cringila on 70 minutes, when Ben Brooks produced a fantastic header to level the score at one-all.

Then, miraculously, only seconds after the kick-off, Matt Floro scored again for United, handing the visitors the lead for the first time in the match.

With the confidence of a lead, United managed to again establish the kinds of consecutive attacking plays that they had set up in the first half, and were starting to outshine a slackened Cringila defence.

But the final fifteen minutes had a number of surprises in store. After a wayward tackle, Cringila were given a free-kick just outside of United’s penalty box, and Joel Craig put in a marvellous strike to find the net and the leveller with it on 76 minutes.

With renewed vigour, both teams found easier paths through their opposition’s defence, but it was Cringila who first found the clean break through Daniel Vasilevski, who did the honours to give the home team the lead, once again, with ten minutes to spare.

But then only two minutes later, Klime Sekutkotski found the net for United, to again level the score to set up a grandstand finish.

With just four minutes remaining and the score at 3-all, it looked to be all wrapped up in a dead-heat, but Cringila once again pulled it out of the hat, when Daniel Vasilevski put through a marvellous header to give the home team the winning goal.

With such a thrilling and closely matched contest, both teams and their supporters will look forward to a rematch on Tuesday night.

 

Cringila (4) vs. Wollongong United (3)

Round 8, Illawarra Mercury Premier League

Crehan Park, 15/5/16

 

Cringila: Richards, Wagus, Eldred, Sparks, Craig, Ali, Awad, Taddeo, King, Atkins, Cevenini, Tinker (Kobayashi, Ramirez, Vasilevski, Don)

Wollongong United: Nastic, Yuzawa, An, Reilly, Kinjo, Floro, Michael, Martinovski, Hajitoffi, Tsovolos, Brooks,
(Sekutkotski, Mazevski, Wylie, McLaren, Ristevski)

Story by Oliver Chaseling

Photo: Pedro Garcia (library archive)