Kemblawarra Fury regained second spot in the Premier League ladder with a comfortable 2-0 win over Tarrawanna Blueys on Sunday afternoon. A first half goal from Matthew McNab and a second half header from captain Alvin Ceccoli were enough to see off a Blueys side which defended well for much of the game, but came closest to scoring as late as the 90^th minute when Woo Oh saw his shot touched onto the bar by Fury keeper Mitchell Blowes.

Fury coach Luke Maguire was pleased with his side’s third IPL victory in eight days: “I thought we were good for the win today. Tarrawanna threw everything at us but we responded well.”

Blueys coach Peter Willis was disappointed not to see his side follow up on last week’s win over Wollongong Olympic, but acknowledged the Fury were the better side on the day. “It didn’t help getting a few knocks early on (Jared Fish and Allister Carrigan both suffered first half injuries), which meant switching things around, but that’s football.” And with further knocks later on to Jarryd Mortimer and Darren Stone, Willis will be looking anxiously at the treatment room this week to see how much this may impact his squad going forward.

The game began at a leisurely pace in the bright sunshine at Macedonia Park, with so little action in the penalty areas for the first twenty five minutes that both keepers could have tuned up late for this game and nobody would have noticed.

The Fury held most of the early possession, though, and Adam Rodriguez’s quiet time between the Tarrawanna sticks was mainly down to the solid defending of the Blueys back four with Stone and Matt Naylor doing sterling work to keep Fury top scorer Anthony Proia quiet.

At the other end, Matthew Mazevski – on for the injured Fish – came closest, sending a screamer of a shot just over the bar. And Rick Goodchild did all the hard work beating two defenders to get within shooting range, but then failed to test Blowes and he skied his effort well over.

There were signs of the Fury upping their game just around the half hour mark as Steve Wright sent a header just wide of the angle for the home side’s closest effort yet.

And the opening goal finally came in the 38^th minute. Lachlan O’Connor sent in a long ball from the left straight to the feet of McNab, who wasted no time, hitting the ball on the volley and into the back of the net for the Fury’s first.

The Blueys almost got straight back into it, when Kazuma Nagaishi set up Oh who fired the ball goalwards, but Blowes did well to get down and keep his side in front.

But it was the home fans who thought their side had doubled the lead on the stroke of half time. Proia steered a Fabian Iacovelli cross into the net before realising that the linesman’s flag was raised for offside.

1-0 at the break, but the Fury had gloveman Blowes to thank again for keeping them in front just after the restart as Jake Morlando fired a fierce strike towards the top corner, forcing Blowes into a flying fingertip save.

McNab had chances to increase the lead but twice misfired when left with just the keeper to beat, and Iacovelli saw a header drift inches wide of the upright as the home side pushed on. Proia hit the back of the net for a second time, but again fell foul of the offside flag. And a Blueys clearance got deflected onto the woodwork before landing in a grateful Rodriguez’s hands.

Tarrawanna pushed forward occasionally, but Ceccoli, Wright and O’Connor looked comfortable for much of the afternoon.

With ten minutes to go, the Fury sealed their victory from a set-piece. David Hartas won a corner down the right. Shane Murray floated it into the area, where Ceccoli was waiting to steer his header into the top corner.

The Blueys never gave up though and came closest in the 90^th minute, when Nagaishi set up Oh whose right foot shot was tipped onto the bar by Blowes: a third crucial save which arguably won his side the match.

Next up for the Blueys is a visit from near neighbours Woonona.

For the Fury, it’s another massive week ahead, with a fifth round FFA Cup tie against Camden Tigers on Tuesday, followed by a repeat of the 2016 Grand Final against Albion Park White Eagles at Terry Reserve on Sunday.

 

Kemblawarra Fury – 2 (McNab 38’, Ceccoli 80’)

Tarrawanna Blueys – 0

Assists: Fury: O’Connor, Murray

Macedonia Park, Sunday 7 May 2017

Referee: Steve Bozic
Assistant referees: Bobby Mazevski, Alexander Vangelovski

Kemblawarra Fury: Mitchell Blowes, Steven Wright, Lachlan O’Connor (Kyle Senior 85’), David Hartas, Fabian Iacovelli, Alvin Ceccoli, Shane Murray, Anthony Proia, Matthew McNab (Kazuto Kushida 70’), Adam Biddle (Sam Matthews 41’), Sam Munro (sub not used: David Zufic)

Tarrawanna Blueys: Adam Rodriguez, Allister Carrigan (Jarryd Mortimer 45’ - Samuel Rose 67’), Matthew Naylor, Darren Stone, Jake Morlando, Jacob Fryday, Woo Oh, Sam Chapple, Kazuma Nagaishi, Rick Goodchild, Jared Fish (Matthew Mazevski 15’) (subs not used: Sangyu Park, Brynley Richards)

 

Report by Simon Duffin

Photo by Noel Wynn