Saints Take Honours To Go Top
- Phil Davis
- May 22, 2016
- 2 min read
St George Willawong 6 (Krkeljas 15’, 53’, Perkic 30’, 49’, Roberts-Steven 47’, Grecl 69’) Samford Rangers 2 (Forsyth pen 22’, Gleeson 35’)
HT: 2-2
Played at St George’s Park
St George Willawong turned on the second half afterburners and flew into title favouritism with a thumping 6-2 defeat of Samford Rangers at St George’s Park on Sunday afternoon.
A tight tussle was expected and the first half lived up to expectations with two goals each. Aleksa Krkeljas opened the scoring with a close range finish at the second opportunity but seven minutes later Breeze Ligthart was hauled down in the area and Dane Forsyth confidently converted the spot kick.
Once again St George went into the lead when Mario Perkic take advantage of rebound but Steven Cross produced a sublime pass with unleashed Ryan Gleeson who beat Dario Music one-on-one.
Straight after the break, the result was put beyond doubt in four minutes. Dom Roberts-Steven scored a brilliant goal in the 47th minute on the back of a long-striding 60 metre run down the wing and Cameron Johnston, who was easily Samford’s best player with a string of spectacular saves which kept the scoreline fairly conservative, turned the ball straight over allowing Perkic to dribble the ball into an empty net.
The Saints were dominating and still had two for two more strikes. Krkeljas collected his second goal with a neat one-two passing move and David Grecl finished it all off with a spectacular strike from outside of the area.
Late in the game the news was even worse for the away side when Forsyth was dismissed for a second yellow card meaning he will be suspended for at least one match.
Everyone was expecting Caboolture to walk through this league by virtue of their move down the rung from Sunshine Coast Premier League football, but St George Willawong are the real surprise packet. If they play like the did in the second half they can beat just about anyone.
Both of these teams are excellent going forward and they showed that today with some high energy football in the attacking third of the field. But St George are strong all around the park which is why they eventually ran out with an easy victory.
At times it looked easy, even before Rangers were reduced to ten players which is remarkable considering this was a clash of the two top sides prior to the weekend. Having beaten Bethania convincingly already, there is no doubt they will be promoted but the question is, can they win the league and Grand Final as well?
With Capital League 4 of this standard, Brisbane football is looking rosy indeed.
FB Media Player Of The Match: Sanjin SKAVO (St George Willawong. On a small pitch, the defensive midfield role is more important than ever. Skavo worked hard all day and it was noticeable that they dominated when he was playing them forward into attack. Team line-ups St George: Music, Duligal, Zonjic, Stojicic, Popovic, Skavo, Roberts-Steven, Radmilovic, Grecl, Krkeljas, Perkic. Subs: Cuic, Kataric, Opacic, Yanik. Samford Rangers: Johnston, Stansfield, McKee, Gray, Newnham, Cross Godsell, Turner, Ligthart, Gleeson, Forsyth. Subs: Bloomfield, Carter-Tobin, Harris Crooks. Referee: Robert Miles
