Fernhill were hoping to push into the Illawarra Mercury Premier League playoff spots when they hosted an inconsistent Port Kembla side at Ray Robinson Field on Sunday. However, it was the visitors who would command the run of play, with first-half goals to Sandy Lowcock and Makoto Ishihara giving Port Kembla a strong lead. The Foxes had a chance to come back midway through the second half, but a missed penalty saw Port Kembla end up with a clean sheet, Cameron Morgan scoring a third goal to secure a good win for the visitors.

Fernhill had not faced Port Kembla in a league fixture since August 2014, when the Foxes lost out 2-0 to a Port Kembla side that would go on to make the Preliminary Final that season, while the Foxes found themselves heading to the District League and in the opening minutes it again appeared that Port Kembla would be in control of the match, with the side creating attacking chances from the beginning of the match, with Fabian Iacovelli having a strong chance to put his side in the lead in the 6^th minute after he connected to a cross from Sandy Lowcock, but his effort was fired straight at Foxes gloveman Bryce Daenell, who made a simple save to keep scores level.

However, Port would not have to wait long before finding the opening goal of the match, with the side netting in the 11^th minute after a fantastic link-up play between Jason Perez and Brooklan Frkovic down the right side of the pitch allowed Frkovic to whip in a center ball where Sandy Lowcock was charging in. Lowcock managed to fire off a sliding shot, which worked its way past Daenell and into the net to give the visitors the lead.

While Port had taken an early lead, the Foxes were unwilling to lie down so easily, and would have a great chance to reset the scores three minutes later when Jordan Hughes burst past the Port Kembla defence with the ball and laid a pass off to Rodney Lewin, who took a first touch shot which was powerfully fired at Port keeper Brad Jardine, who managed to pick the effort off and maintain the visitors lead.

Despite Fernhill creating more attacking chances after going a goal down, the next goal of the match would again go to the visitors, with Port Kembla picking up their second goal in the 31^st minute. At the heart of the goal was Sandy Lowcock once again, as the forward made a wonderful bursting run down the left-hand side of the field before firing off a pass that just worked its way past Fernhill’s Dale White to find Makoto Ishihara in the box, who then managed to nutmeg Bryce Daenell at the goalmouth to net his first league goal of the season and give Port Kembla a commanding 2-0 lead.

However, Fernhill was yet to call the match quits and came agonizingly close to netting a wonderful strike in the 36^th minute when Rodney Lewin found himself with the ball in the centre of the park. Lewin decided to fire off a fantastic curling strike from distance, which just went to the right of the top corner and out of play, leaving the Foxes with a lot of work to do to salvage a point going into the second half.

With Fernhill needing to pull two goals back, as the second half kicked off it appeared that the hosts were yet to kick into full gear, as Port Kembla came close to adding a third goal in the 48^th minute when Cameron Morgan fired off a looping ball to Makoto Ishihara who was waiting in the box, but despite some great control from Ishihara, the Port Kembla forward mis-hit his shot and sent the ball wide of the Foxes goal.

But as the second half wore on, Fernhill started to take control of the match and the side came close to pulling one back in the 62^nd minute when a cross from Yusuke Maruyama was cleared out of the Port Kembla box but only as far as a waiting Mitchell Turner, who fired off a shot which just flew to the left of the post.

Fernhill’s attacking persistence finally paid off in the 65^th minute when the Foxes were given a penalty after Jason Perez handballed the ball in the box. The spot-kick was then left up to Yusuke Maruyama, who fired a shot into the left-hand side of the net, only for it to be denied by a perfect save from Brad Jardine, who pushed the ball away from the goal and all but killed Fernhill’s chances of getting back into the match.

Having missed a crucial chance to get back into the game, the Foxes found themselves dropping back and allowing Port Kembla to push their way back into control of the match, and as a result the side would pick up their third goal of the afternoon in the 73^rd minute when Makoto Ishihara would break away from the Fernhill defence and give him enough time to set up a simple pass to an incoming Cameron Morgan, who would then fire home his second goal of the season and secure all three points for the visitors.

Port Kembla would have one last chance to add to their lead in the 86^th minute when a cross from Naruyuki Kato found Ishihara in the box, but despite his effort beating a rushing Bryce Daenell, the shot was deflected out by the Foxes defence to ensure that the result would not increase for the visitors, a 3-0 win the final result.

Port Kembla’s win sees them move up to sixth, now sitting on level points with fifth placed Corrimal Rangers and seventh placed Tarrawanna Blueys. Port have an important week coming up as they travel to Rex Jackson Park to take on Helensburgh Thistle in the Bert Bampton Cup on Wednesday before hosting league leaders Bulli in a rematch of last season’s Grand Final on Saturday.

For the Foxes, the loss sees them slip to eighth place, as the side has been passed by their opponents and Tarrawanna, but they will take solace in the fact that the side remains only one point out of playoff contention. Fernhill will be hosting a replay of last season’s District League Major Semi-Final when they take on Warilla Wanderers in the Bert Bampton Cup on Wednesday night, before they travel to Terry Reserve to face a still-unbeaten Albion Park White Eagles on Saturday.

Sunday 13 May 2018 at Ray Robinson Field.

Fernhill – 0

Port Kembla FC – 3 (Lowcock 11’, Ishihara 31’, Morgan 73’)

Fernhill: Bryce DAENELL, Andrew DRAPANIOTIS, Alexander ROOKE, Dale WHITE, Rodney LEWIN, Ryan HUNTER, Michael MACGRAW, Jordan HUGHES, Shinsei TANAKA, Mitchell TURNER, Yusuke MARUYAMA

Subs: Dean MOROSIN (HUGHES 84’), Benjamin RIACH (LEWIN 69’), Lachlan CALDER (WHITE 69’), Ryan LAPPIN, Brad HUNTER

Port Kembla FC: Brad JARDINE, Brooklan FRKOVIC, William MOBBS, Kyle SENIOR, Carlo STELLA, Justin CARIO, Jason PEREZ, Makoto ISHIHARA, Sandy LOWCOCK, Joey LAVALLE, Fabian IACOVELLI

Subs: Nobuaki MOCHIZUKI (LOWCOCK 87’), Cameron MORGAN (IACOVELLI 23’), Naruyuki KATO (LAVALLE 74’), Daniel FARINA, Bailey FLEMING

Referee – Nathan WOTTON

Assistant Referees – Joshua SPAIN and Tristan JAMES

Report by Cal Behrendt, on Twitter @CalBehrendt

Photo by Noel Wynn