Virginia Strengthen Top Four Spot
Virginia Utd 3 (Usher 5’, Geddes 12’, Medhurst 64’)
Annerley 0
HT: 2-0 Played at Albert Bishop Park
Virginia United put four points between themselves and third place with a comfortable 3-0 win over a depleted Annerley at Albert Bishop Park on Saturday night. Despite a good start, Annerley found themselves behind in the fifth minute when Tom Usher somehow shanked his shot into the far side of the goal and the lead was doubled seven minutes later by a trademark powerful drive from Michael Geddes. It took almost an hour for the win to be confirmed by Dan Medhurst who picked up the scraps from a corner and forced the ball home through a sea of legs. With a raft of first-teamers missing for Annerley, 3-0 was a fair result for the home side who restricted their opponents to only a handful of opportunities and dominated the contest as the game wore on. Virginia have adopted something of a trademark, hard-pressing, energetic style of play which paid a premium tonight as they could easily have scored more goals with a little bit more composure in attack. Well drilled set-pieces are also in their arsenal with hardly a corner or free-kick wasted through inaccuracy which will cause lesser opponents all sorts of problems in the countdown to the finals series. Despite not having their best eleven running around, at times Annerley played some stylish football and probably linked together more long strings of passes than Virginia but they were no match for their speed and aggression. With Centenary also winning this evening, the two top teams meet up next weekend for a showdown which could eventually decide the title, and will almost certainly ensure the winner finishes in the top two. Notably for Virginia, Phil Randal took to the field for the last fifteen minutes as he regains fitness and is sure to be an excellent addition for the run home.
Coaches Reactions:
Richard Hudson (Virginia Utd): “I thought we were good value for the three points. Three weeks ago we got beaten by Oxley and we had a re-think. Tonight I thought we didn’t give them a sniff really and they didn’t have any chances. We out battles them and deserved the win.”
Anthony Costa (Annerley): “I thought the boys put in a great effort. We worked really hard. I thought that we just had the better of the play overall but we had eight regular starters out today due to injuries and sickness. Considering we had some City 6 players in the squad I thought it was a pretty good effort but unfortunately when you don’t have the quality on the field against Virginia. They took their chances.”
Team line-ups
Virginia Utd: Couesnon, Pitt, Medhurst, Kehoe, Hinds, Harbeck, Nicolaidis, Crawford, Usher, Geddes, MacDougal.
Subs: Passaris, Randal, Smith, Wilson.
Annerley Jimenez, Miller, Bidoli, Head, Launchbury, MacNamara, O’Brien, Otigbah, Powell, Savage. Singhateh, Smith, Surrentino. REFEREE: Dylan Lambert
