Thirroul’s complete dominance of the first half led to two goals and their first win of the season, while Shell Cove’s much improved showing in the second period couldn’t stop them from staying stuck in their position at the bottom of District League for the time being.

From the kick-off, Thirroul looked in complete control, as Joshua Bond had two glorious chances to the first two minutes, while in the 5^th Thomas Goodier skyed one over the bar from within the six-yard box.

Shell Cove’s calamitous start went from bad to worse in the 8^th minute as defender Alex Garcia suffered an injury, leaving Shell Cove extremely vulnerable at the back.

In the 13^th minute, the inevitable happened as Bond scored to give Thirroul the lead, as he pounced on a fumble from Shell Cove's goalkeeper, Brandon Groom. The goal was a gift from Groom who somehow managed to mishandle the ball as he clipped Bond while running to the edge of the box, presenting the ball to the feet of the thankful striker.

With Shell Cove’s defence in disarray, they allowed seemingly innocuous Thirroul attacks to develop. Struggling to move the ball forward with any purpose, Shell Cove’s frustration grew, and a new wave of Thirroul momentum began. Capitalising on their dominance, Thirroul doubled their advantage in the 28^th minute, with Bond scoring his second goal for the day, courtesy of a brilliantly executed hard and low cross from Thirroul’s skipper, Daniel Arthur.

Down 2-0 and disenchanted, Shell Cove looked keen to go home with still an hour to go but 10 minutes later two good chances and some free-flowing passing seemed to change the mood of the Barbarians before the break.

Shell Cove came out of the sheds a changed team and began taking control of the match, surprising Thirroul. Jordan Haddow became some-what of a talisman for Shell Cove on the right-wing and created multiple opportunities, often in combination with Tatsuya Sato.

As Shell Cove began to fight their way back into the contest, Thirroul began to show signs of complacency, highlighted by Bond’s speculative effort to score a hattrick from range in the 55^th minute.

Fatigue began to set in amongst both teams with rash challenges becoming a regular occurrence.

Shell Cove enjoyed some dominance midway through the second half, culminating with a goal-line clearance by Thirroul. Feeling hard done by not to score, Shell Cove nearly conceded a third goal on the counter only for Groom to make a superb reflex save from point-blank range. From that point on Shell Cove enjoyed most of the possession but failed to penetrate the now shored up Thirroul defence.

With seconds remaining, Robert Gyngell of Thirroul was shown a straight red for dissent after having his penalty claim turned away. The rash act from Gyngell somewhat marred what was a solid performance from Thirroul who will hope to build on from it next week as they take on Unanderra at home.

Shell Cove, on the other hand, will be annoyed that such a dismal first half ruined their chances of putting points on the board but will be satisfied with a much improved second half which they will no doubt need to replicate next week against the high-flying University.

Saturday 6 April @ Barrack Heights Oval

Shell Cove – 0

Thirroul – 2 (Bond 13’, 28’,)

Shell Cove – Branden GROOM, Atanas SIMONOVSKI, Alex GARCIA, Savo SEKULIC, Dusan KOLONJA, Gordan NIKOLOVSKI, Kazundri MASUDA, Jordan HADDOW, Tatsuya SATO, Yoshioka REN.

Substitutes – Ljupco NAUMOVSKI (on for Garcia), Alexsander ANGELKOSKI (on for Simonovski), Kyle MARTIN (on for Sekulic), James PETRESKI, Andrew SOUSA.

Thirroul – Liam HARRIS, Adam WARD, Daniel ARTHUR, Thomas GOODIER, Alan MADDOCK, Ashley RYAN, Ryan LATINI, Todd DAVIDSON, Joshua BOND, Nathan MUCCI, Joel MUCCI.

Substitutes – Matthew KELLOND (on for Bond), Cooper Brindle (on for Ward), Hayden SWEENEY, Tyler ADAMS, Robert GYNGELL (on for J.Mucci).

Referee – J. RUSCICA

Assistants – R. EDWARDS & I. RONCATO

Report by Nicholas Wilson, on Twitter @nicwilson

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