By Alen Delic (@alendelic)

Avondale Heights put on a show for its fans, destroying Brunswick City 4-0 in the team’s first home game of the season on Saturday.

Both sides had their chances in the opening minutes, but it was Avondale Heights which proved the more clinical.

In the 16th minute, Avondale launched a long ball to Jason Principato that should have been cleaned up, but an air swing allowed Principato to turn towards the byline and drive a ball at the edge of the six-yard box, where Opeksiy Khrapko was lurking for his second goal of the season.

Both teams had their chances to get the second goal of the match, but Brunswick seemed unable to find the final ball to get in behind Avondale’s defence, while some safe keeping from Mason Interlandi kept Avondale at bay.

Tensions rose in the 44th minute, when Brunswick’s Dimitri Vithoulkas collected Avondale Heights’ Julien Cannizzaro in a reckless and dangerous challenge. Players from both teams made their opinions clear with some handbags, but it was quickly diffused and Vithoulkas collected a resulting yellow.

Avondale came out firing in the second half, only taking seven minutes to find the back of the net.

Some brilliant lead-up work saw Andrew Le Page collect the ball on the right edge of the six-yard box, playing it across goal to find Principato on the far side who slotted it past the helpless goalkeeper. 2-0.

Five minutes later, Anthony Le Page had a chance to get his name on the scoresheet via a volley after a header from Khrapko fell in his direction, but some brilliant work from Interlandi in making himself look big left Le Page with nowhere to go.

But Interlandi’s good work would be undone in the 73rd minute, when a botched clearance fell to the feet of Burakhan Koka, who charged forward and drew a defender to him, only to release Le Page for his first goal of the game.

Brunswick looked a team defeated, showing a lack of effort in tracking back and even less going forward.

Avondale completed the rout in the 90th minute, when Cannizzaro’s perfectly guided diagonal ball from right-back found the run of Anthony Le Page at the far post, who made it 4-0.

The hosts were not yet finished though, with another chance deep into injury time.

A one-two from substitute Radom Fusca with Cannizzaro found Fusca on the edge of the 18-yard-box. He played it across the face of goal to find Anthony Le Page at the far post again, but a brilliant scrambling save from Interlandi kept the score at 4-0.

Avondale Heights coach Anthony Barbieri said he was over the moon with his team’s style of play, but warned his team not to get ahead of themselves.

“All the hard work we’ve been putting in at training definitely showed up today,” Barbieri said.

“Our philosophy has been playing good football, keeping the ball on the ground, trying to create space, and it was definitely replicated on the pitch today.

“Moving forward, we’re just going to continue with our philosophy; we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves.

“We’ll take it one week at a time and try and play a good, attractive game of soccer.”

Brunswick City coach Joe De Martino put the second half capitulation down to his team’s inexperience.

“If you’d have asked me at halftime, is this game going to finish 4-0, I probably would have laughed at you,” De Martino said.

“Overall, I felt in the first 45 minutes we had the play.

“Maybe 1-0 was a little bit unfair in the way we were playing.

“But in the second half, it highlighted that we are a young, inexperienced squad, and we still have a lot to learn.”

MATCH DETAILS

Avondale Heights SC 4 (Khrapko 16’, Principato 52’, Le Page 73’, 90’) defeated Brunswick City 0 at Avondale Heights Reserve [HT: 1:0]

Avondale Heights: Anthony SARIC (GK), Anthony STRANO, Andrew LE PAGE, Anthony FALLONE, Burakhan KOKA (Daniel SLOVACEK 79’), Zoran PAJIC, Jason PRINCIPATO (Andrew SACHETTA 75’), Resit CULCULOGLU, Julien CANNIZZARO, Dean CAMPELJ, Opeksiy KHRAPKO (Radom FUSCA 81’)

Unused subs: John SCOLLO (GK), Bale MICOVSKI

Yellow cards: None

Red cards: None

Brunswick City: Mason INTERLANDI (GK), Giuseppe AIELLO, Manny KARAS, George McHEILEH (Chris SUAVO 71’), Oktay OZTEKIN (Admir KOLAKOVIC 55’), Denis SADIK, Robert SCHIAFONE, Nicholas TEREZAKIS, Costas THANOS (Abdullah ABDULLAH 55’), Michael VARKOPOULOS, Dimitri VITHOULKAS

Unused subs: George MARKELIS, Rodjar ZENGIN

Yellow cards: Costas THANOS 29’, Dimitri VITHOULKAS 44’

Reds cards: None