Unanderra suffered their first loss of the season falling 1-0 to Bellambi on Saturday afternoon at Elizabeth Park. Bellambi’s goal scored by Todd Simpson in the 38^th minute was enough for the Rosella’s to hold out the rest of the game and claim three points.

Playing against a moderate wind in the first half, Unanderra were still managing to counter against Bellambi who had the bulk of possession throughout the first half.

Bellambi almost pushed ahead though after just 10 minutes when Tor Preece received a curling cross from Matt Richardson heading the ball to beat Unanderra keeper Jake De Jesus and find the back off the net. Bellambi’s celebrations were soon pulled up after the goal was disallowed for an infringement leading up to the play.

Unanderra kept Bellambi’s weapons at bay with close marking and they countered efficiently however, it wasn’t until the 20^th minute that Heart’s actually managed to trouble Bellambi custodian Jack Dugan. After finding a few yards of space, Save Treneski powered a shot low towards the near post forcing Dugan to parry the ball wide for a corner.

With the game in the balance, Bellambi got the breakthrough in the 38^th minute. The ball fell nicely to Todd Simpson after a daft clearance and he drilled it inside the post beating an out stretched De Jesus to give Bellambi the lead which they saw through to half time.

Bellambi were brimming with confidence and began to dominate possession in the early stages of the second half having peppered the Unanderra goal with three shots on target within the first 2 minutes of the restart.

The Rosella defence was solid and restricted Unanderra to half chances and long-range efforts for much of the half. Dugan however was tested when a curling corner nearly found its way inside the back post however a fingertip save spared his blushes.

With no further goals in this match, Bellambi saw out the game to take a one point lead in the District League competition.

It was a great weekend for the Rosella’s as they also claimed the scalp of a depleted Wollongong United side on Sunday in the Bert Bampton Cup.

Bellambi can look forward to facing Picton away next week whilst Unanderra fall into 4^th place and host Shell Cove in round 9 of the Peoplecare District League.

 

 

Saturday 11 May 2019 @Elizabeth Park, Bellambi

Bellambi Rosellas – 1 (SIMPSON 38’)

Unanderra Hearts – 0

Bellambi: Jack DUGAN, Grant ZANNI, Tor PREECE, Nath THOMPSON, Sean POULTON, Nick MORGAN, Tim O’BRIEN, Matt PASSLACK, Matt RICHARDSON, Todd SIMPSON, Ben ELLUL- Subs- Scott CHIPPERFIELD, Damian WARWICK, Scott MULIWYK, Val RIZVANI

Unanderra: Jake DEJESUS, Stephan JOVANOVSKI, Benn SALLABANK, Matt CUDA, Michael POTTER, Nate PULJIC, Christian PLAKIAS, Stephen DRAPER, Daniel SAVERINO, Mark PICCIOLINI, Save TRENESKI- Subs- Chris STEVANOVSKI, Chris MURDZEVSI, Lachlan OSBORNE, Damian JORGE, Kieran OSBORNE

Referee: Mick Agim

Assistant referees: Rob Sindevski and Warwick Davidson

Report by Tim Dixon, on Twitter @tim_dixon_

Photo by Noel Wynn