A sunny but windy afternoon brought a good sized crowd to Macedonia Park to see Wollongong United narrowly defeat a determined Picton Rangers 1-0 in the Round 14 Illawarra Mercury Premier League fixture.

Picton Rangers had an impressive start to the game with an attack initiated by Jarrod Morley who, dodging around Wollongong United defenders, ran down the sideline to take a shot diagonally at the goals but Wollongong United’s goalkeeper Sam Nastic was well positioned to save the shot.

Wollongong United's first real effort came in the 8^th minute with Jake Webster attempting a long range shot from the middle of the field but the ball fell short and was collected easily by Brad Jones.

Picton started piling on the pressure earning themselves two quick corners however they were easily dealt with by the United defence.

Wollongong United had a chance to score from a free kick in a goos position. The kick was taken by Angelo Hajittofi, who overcooked his shot/cross resulting in a wasted opprtunity for the hosts.

Just before half time, Picton Rangers had a good opportunity to score after Jarrod Morley made a good run with the ball up the sideline and after cutting back in saw his shot narrowly go over the bar.

The game was fast paced and entertaining and it was a bit of a surprise to see the no score as the teams headed into the break.

The players returned to the field to start the second half with Wollongong United on the attack straight away. Daisuke Yuzawa beat his opponent and crossed the ball to Angelo Hajittofi whi just couldn't quite get there in time before colliding with Jones and yet another chance gone begging.

Wollongong United’s Matt Floro wasted a good opportunity to open the scoring after good lead up work from Johnny Martinovski.   Directly in front of the goal, Floro seemed to take too long to shoot giving the Picton Rangers goalkeeper time to smother the shot.

Ten minutes into the second half, a well weighted Daisuke Yuzawa free kick was headed onto the cross bar by Benjamin Brooks who jusr couldn't keep it down enough. One sensed Wollongong United were starting to get on top again at this point.

Just minutes later, Daisuke Yuzawa had thought he had scored after latching onto a loose ball after Jones failed to handle however he was ruled off side and the goal was cancelled out.

Just as the game looked to be heading scoreless, Ben Brooks bundled the ball home from a corner after competing for the ball with Nastic. Despite appeals of a foul from Picton, the goal stood and Wollongong United led 1-0 with just 5 minutes left. 

Picton Rangers bombed players forward looking to get something out of the game and their last chance was a tame free kick which was cleared away.

In the end, Wollongong United perhaps just did enough to deserve the three points however Picton were left points dropped as they slip to seventh position following the weekends games.

Saturday, 25^th of June, 2016

Premier League, 1^st grade, Round 14, Macedonia Park

 

Wollongong United team: Sam Nastic, Daisuke Yuzawa, Brendan Reilly, Benjamin Brooks, Angelo Hajittofi, Billy Tsovolos, Jake Webster, Karouna Michael, Johnny Martinovski, Matt Floro, Jinya An.

Replacements: Nick Ristevski, Klime Sekutkoski, Zac Mclaren, Jackson Brooks, Jake Leighton.

 

Picton Team: Brad Jones, Nic Mugridge, Brad Durrant, Dale Nicol, Scott Miranda, Jarrod Morley, Aidan Matthews, Dayne Morley, Mitchell Hall, Dan Goodnew, Connor Dymond

Replacements: Andrew Borg, Jesse Howard, Ben Realph, Will Mlleod.

 

Referee: Peter ILcevski

Assistant Referees: Gareth Jenkins, Damien Dennelly

Report by Emma Gilly

Photo: Pedro Garcia (library archive)