Despite the sun re-emerging after a wet afternoon just in time for kick-off at King Mickey Park, it was a pretty gloomy afternoon for the home side who succumbed to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Oak Flats.

After a lacklustre opening, the game sprung into life when Warilla’s David Becos was shown a straight red in the 23^rd minute.

It was amongst the uproar and anger of the controversial sending off that Jamie Stevenson strolled up from centre-back to take the set piece. Inspired by Lionel Messi midweek, Stevenson struck the ball from range into the bottom left corner to give Oak Flats the lead.

A man down and a goal down with much of the game left to play, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Warilla to get a result as Oak Flats began to take a stranglehold of possession. For the rest of the half, however, Warilla did look to score on the counter and came close to getting in behind the Falcons defence on a few occasions.

As the second half began tired Wanderers' legs were evident as the game opened up, presenting many opportunities for Oak Flats to double their advantage, more often than not, through striker Hayato Sadamori.

Despite his excellent movement off the ball and his dribbling with it, Sadamori was unable to beat Warilla keeper Blake Rusell, the post or the crossbar. Rusell’s magnificent saves, with the aid of the woodwork, caused Sadamori all sorts of headaches, who was eventually substituted with 20 minutes to play.

Sadamori’s substitution coincided with the flood gates opening as Oak Flats scored back-to-back goals in the 72^nd and 75^th minute.

The first was a confident finish from Bojan Caric, who hit the ball first time into the roof of the goal after the ball was slid across the area from the right-hand side.

The second, saw Lee Gilroy score the Oak Flats 3^rd all most immediately after the kick-off, against a deflated defence, who had held on valiantly for so long with no reward to show for it.

3-0 down, Warilla would have been contempt to finish the game then, but for Oak Flats’ substitutes, Josh Eagleton and Nathan Wilson, the afternoon was only just beginning.

In the 87^th minute, Wilson, full of pace and energy, broke through down the left wing and found himself one-one with Rusell. However, in an act of unselfishness he chose not to shoot and slid the ball across to the on running Eagleton, who smashed the ball home to wrap up 3 Falcon points.

Despite winning comfortably, Oak Flats’ Coach, Nathan Minutillo, wasn’t completely satisfied with his team’s performance.

“We played the majority of the game against 10 men, and we didn’t really capitalise on it like we should have. There were positives, we created a lot of chances, but our finishing wasn’t up to scratch today… We have to be better against better teams.”

Oak Flats will look to carry on their winning ways against Shell Cove next week, while Warilla will look to regather themselves before facing Thirroul.

Audio: Nathan Minutillo Interview

5^th May 2019 @ King Mickey Park

Warilla – 0

Oak Flats – 4 (STEVENSON 24’, CARIC 72’, GILROY 75’, EAGLETON 87’)

Warilla- Blake RUSELL, Martin CASTELL, David BECOS, Drew SHAW, Jason SAURO, Stewart ROBERTSON, Daniel PEREZ, Brenton GERIBO, Russell CRUSHTON, Daniel ATKINS, Marc LEE.

Substitutes- Sasa GUGALJ, Chris WALKER, Jed FRENCH, Kaine DIXON, Ryan NORONHA.

Oak Flats- Scott FAGERLUND, John TILDEN, Jamie STEVENSON, Alan WARBURTON, Christian CAPPETIA, Jarryd VINTON, Hayato SADAMORI, Daniel MUNILLA, Lee GILROY

Substitutes- Chris JARMAN, Josh EAGLETON, Ross GRAHAM, Nathan WILSON

Referee- J. RUSICO

Assistants- P. HUTTON, J McDEAN.

Report by Nic Wilson, on twitter @_nicwilson

Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn