Tarrawanna and Port Kembla shared the points, playing out a hard-fought 1 all draw in front of packed Tarrawanna Oval. The match was full of end to end action for the majority of the encounter, however, clear cut chances for both sides were few and far between.

The home side looked the most likely to score early on but failed to capitalise on half chances.

In the 5^th minute, Keisuke Hayashi hit an in-swinging corner that was fumbled by Port keeper, Chris Fuentes, but the Blueys failed to poke the dropped ball into the back of the net and instead it was eventually regathered by Fuentes.

In the 14^th minute, Hayashi created another opportunity, this time cutting the ball across the box from the left-hand side, which arrived at the feet of youngster Nicolas Tomasiello after Stephen Lloyd had missed the ball with an air swing. However, Tomasiello failed to convert, hitting the ball straight at Fuentus.

The early misses looked to have come back to bite Tarrawanna in the 21^st minute when Port Kembla's Brad Acev was played through one on one with Adam Rodriguez in goals. Acev finessed his shot around Rodrigues but in arguably the most significant moment of the first half, Tarrawanna defender, Daniel Chapman, cleared the ball off the line.

In the 31^st minute, Rodriguez was called into action again when Chris Gomez forced him to make a diving save but it was his opposite number, Fuentes, who would show his true class when Tarrawanna broke on the counter. With the ball on the edge of the box, Tarrawanna’s Rick Goodchild, glided past his defenders when he cut the ball back onto his left foot, firing a shot from a tight angle, which was parried by Fuentes into Hayashi’s path. With Hayashi only a metre away from the goal, Fuentes pulled off a stunning dive low to his right to keep the scores level going into the break.

Contrary to the goalless first half, it would take less than sixty seconds of the second half for a goal to be scored, courtesy of Port Kembla’s birthday boy, Fabian Iacovelli. Having lobbed in a poor cross from the right, Port looked to have thrown away possession. However, a horrible attempt by the Tarrawanna defender to chest the ball back to his keeper presented an opportunity for Iacovelli to run onto the ball and place it past Rodriguez who was caught in no-mans land.

In the 58^th minute, Port Kembla had a golden opportunity to double their advantage when Iacovelli flew down the left wing. Drawing Rodriguez towards him, Iacovelli could have shot but unselfishly chose to cut the ball across to his teammates. However, his execution was poor as the ball sped across the surface out of the reach of all his teammates, towards the collective groans of the Port Kembla faithful.

Chasing the game, Tarrawanna began to fire a number of speculative efforts until they were awarded a penalty in the 74^th minute when Goodchild was fouled just inside the area. Stepping up to the spot, Matthew Naylor, secured the equaliser with his well-placed side-footed shot. However, it wasn't all good news for the hosts, as they would be playing the remainder of the match with 10 men after Stephen Lloyd was shown his second yellow in the aftermath of the penalty decision.

With the extra man, Port now had the ascendancy to go on and win the match. Spending the final ten minutes in the Tarrawanna half, Port whipped in cross after cross, corner after corner, but could not find the back of the net.

In the 85^th minute, Sandy Lowcock, fresh off the bench, stormed into the Tarrawanna penalty area before cutting the ball back to Daniel Djukic. Alas, Djukic completely missed the ball and left the open goal begging.

A minute later, fellow Port substitute, Kenta Hara, found himself with the ball in the middle of a congested area. Swivelling on his right foot, Hara met the ball with his left on the half-volley but pulled his shot just wide of the right upright.

The final chance of the match would fall to Tarrawanna in the 90^th minute when a corner found the free head of an attacker but like all the chances beforehand, it amounted to nothing.

The match was an intense encounter, evident with 7 yellows and 1 red card shown, that left both teams feeling like they could have won the match, however, a draw was a fair result.

Next week Tarrawanna takes on Wollongong United at Macedonia Park, with the 3 points on offer crucial for both sides top 5 hopes.

Meanwhile, Port Kembla, take on a Fernhill side desperate to escape the relegation zone. Any less than 3 points could see the boys in black and white slip further away from the top 5 race depending on other results.

7^th July @ Tarrawanna Oval

Tarrawanna – 1 (Naylor 74’)

Port Kembla – 1 (Iacovelli 46’)

Tarrawanna – Adam RODRIGUEZ, Matthew NAYLOR, Jake MORLANDO, Daniel CHAPMAN, Matthew ROBINSON, Benjamin LEARMONTH, Nicolas TOMASIELLO, Sam MUNRO, Stephen LLOYD, Keisuke HAYASHI.

Substitutes – Hayden LLOYD (on for Hayashi), Caleb GRACE, Tyson BLACK, Bowen SIMPSON (on for Tomasiello), Kaydin HARRSION

Port Kembla – Chris FUENTES, William MOBBS, Karouna MICHAEL, Nobi MOCHIZUKI, Luke BOERSMA, Chris GOMEZ, Aden WADE, Daniel DJUKIC, Brad ACEV, Fabian IACOVELLI.

Substitutes – Kenta HARA (on for Iacovelli), Sandy LOWCOCK (on for Wade), Addison GILLESPIE, Dylan NIKOLOVSKI (on for Djukic), Daniel FARINA.

Referee – Steve BOZIC

Assistants – Ben KEMP, Mick AGIM

Report by Nic Wilson, on twitter @_nicwilson

Photo couresty of Noel Wynn