Port Kembla overcame a 2-goal deficit and a man down to score two goals in the final 30 minutes against Shell Cove for an entertaining 2-2 draw at Wetherall Park on Friday night.

With wind gusts rampantly impacting play, both teams took stock of the dreadful football conditions and played exhilarating end-to-end football that raised the crowd off their feet for the engaging final minutes.

Port Kembla coach Stuart Beedie was happy with the draw considering the match circumstances.

“If you had asked me before the game if I was going to be happy with a point, I would have said absolutely not,”said Beedie.

“Then we got a player sent off and it really looked pretty glum there. The strength of the boys to come back and dominate the last 25 minutes of the game with 10 men, I really got to be happy with a point.”

The blustery winds were behind the Shell Cove backs for the opening half, ensuring shots had plenty of power but lacked accuracy.

Daniel Vellonio sent a loose strike in the 5th minute accelerated with the wind to the vicinity of the goals, but was never a threat at ending in the net.

Port Kembla began to plant territory in the attacking third, with a strong chance in the 9th minute courtesy of a William Mobbs cross from the left sideline, holding up in the wind forcing Shell Cove keeper Yaturo Oda to punch the ball at the feet of Port’s Jarryd Vinton who sent a strike marginally over the crossbar.

Another Port Kembla attacking raid in the 15th minute saw a looping header find young striker Sandy Lowcock on the far left post, who sent a classy left foot finish into the netting only to be cruelly denied by a raised offside flag.

Against the momentum of the fixture Shell Cove leapt onto the scoreboard courtesy of Daniel Vellonio who led the race to a bouncing ball in the penalty area, volleyed past a rushing Port Kembla goalkeeper and was able to finish comfortably into the open goals for an 18th minute goal.

Port Kembla continued attacking where they left off following the defensive lapse, consistently threatening the Shell Cove defence earning a number of free kicks but lacked the polish to be rewarded for their constant efforts.

In the 39th minute, Shell Cove’s Jonathon Barzel latched onto a pass on the right side of the penalty box and his nimble feet powered a strike at the angle towards goals, triggering an impressive save from the Port Kembla goalkeeper Daniel Farina denying a two goal lead.

At the half-time break, Shell Cove returned to the dressing room with a 1-0 lead but Port Kembla would be confident they could eventually break down the defence in front of their home crowd.

Minutes after half-time Shell Cove disheartened the home crowd by doubling their lead courtesy of the head of Alexander Crane.

Beautiful link passing along the left sideline between Shell Cove’s Shohei Arakawa and Kurdvan Abduljabbar allowed Arakawa to take time to cross a ball to the charging Alexander Crane at the far post who headed the ball into the goals for an important second goal.

Port Kembla continued to refuse defeat and once again got the ball into the netting from the head of Peter Richardson to be only be denied by the officials. The 58th minute corner kick to Richardson had been adjudicated as floating out, resulting in a goal kick for Shell Cove.

Only a minute later a double blow came when Port Kembla’s leading goalscorer for 2016 Sandy Lowcock was sent from the field for his second yellow card after a reckless challenge in the 59th minute, making the challenge facing Port even tougher.

Only minutes later, Port Kembla lit fuel in the fixture with a important goal to Jarryd Vinton.

A Douglas Woodiwiss cross from the right zoomed towards aerial threat Peter Richardson who forced Shell Cove goalkeeper Yaturo Oda to punch the threat clear, only to find Jarryd Vinton at the edge of the penalty area who made no mistake with a low hard strike driving through traffic into the goals.

The match had well and truly opened up, with ball rolling end to end as both teams searched for another goal to ensure the result would go in their teams favour.

In the 78th minute, a cross from Port’s William Mobbs found Takao Terramotto in the penalty area who meekly headed the ball at the goalkeeper for a gentle save.

In the 86th minute the fixture exploded, with Shell Cove goalkeeper Yaturo Oda leaving the penalty area with ball in hand allowing a Port Kembla free kick just outside the penalty box.

Douglas Woodiwiss took charge of the Port Kembla free kick which cannoned perilously into the crossbar courtesy of a deflection, but in the impending scramble a careless Shell Cove challenge in the penalty area forced the referee to point at the spot for a penalty.

Woodiwiss made no mistakes with the penalty kick sending it low and the left and the goalkeeper dived the other way as the fixture was equalised.

In the final minutes as Shell Cove earnt a free kick in an counter attack, with tempers boiling over in a little fracas that saw Shell Cove’s Ryan Vandenberg earn a red card for his involvement.

The match finished as an entertaining 2-2 draw, despite the terrible conditions for football.

Shell Cove coach Paul Carter was disappointed with the final result, but not surprised.

“I see last night as a result because a Stuart Beedie team never gives up,”said Carter.

“I know they are going to cry they had goals disallowed, but if you talk about football team, we were the superior football team by a country mile. At the same time only they can do what they did, which was sensational.”

The result sees Port Kembla rise to 8th and Shell Cove rise to 11th, with both teams possible to remain there pending on results for the remainder of Round 14.

Shell Cove will host second placed Bulli next Saturday afternoon as they look to climb the ladder amid a number of FSC point penalties throughout the season, while Port Kembla have one of the toughest road trips of the Premier League season travelling to Hume Oval to battle the rugged 4th placed Picton Rangers.

 

Friday 24 June, 2016

Wetherall Park

 

Port Kembla 2 (Jarryd Vinton 61’, Douglas Woodiwiss 86’)

Shell Cove FC 2 (Daniel Vellonio 18’, Alexander Crane 48’)

 

Referee: N. Wotton

Assistant Referees: M. Thorpe & T. Arnold

 

Port Kembla:

Daniel Farina, Peter Richardson, William Mobbs, James Volkanovski (Adrian Nikolovski 36’), Carlo Stella, Brooklyn Frkovic, Jarryd Vinton, Doug Woodiwiss, Sandy Lowcock, Joseph Lavalle (Justin Potter), Takao Teramotto

Yellow Cards: William Moobs, Jarryd Vinton

Red Cards: Sandy Lowcock

 

 

 

Shell Cove FC:

Yaturo Oda, Nathan Macgraw, Lucas Rossi, Alexander Crane, Kazuhiro Obata (Jake Waterman 74’), Ljupco Naumovski, Jonathan Barzel, Daniel Vellonio, Alexander Crane, Kurdvan Abduljabbar (Jordan Hassiem 78’), Shohei Arakawa, Ryan Vandenberg

Yellow Cards: Ljupco Naumovski, Alexander Crane

Red Cards: Ryan Vandenberg

 

Report by Daniel McGookin

Twitter: @mcgoookin93

Photo: Pedro Garcia