Clinical Clairvaux Stun Saints
Clairvaux 3 (Nguyen 17’, Wright 61’, Christian 84’) St George Willawong 0 HT: 1-0 Played at Clairvaux MacKillop College
These two met just six days ago at Willawong where St George handed out a 6-0 thrashing to Clairvaux. The Saints were expected to win again but Clairvaux had other ideas and took the chances on offer to record a memorable victory. St George started out showing they meant business as they pressured Clairvaux for the first ten minutes, although without creating anything clear cut. After weathering that initial phase, Clairvaux slowly began to get into the match and had the best chance in the 12th minute when a long throw on the left found Chris Snape and he fed the ball across to Adam Halama-Lumsden who dallied on the ball when an early shot was the option allowing the Saints’ defence to get across and block the eventual shot. Six minutes later, a pass from Michael Robinson found Halama-Lumsden on the right and he dribbled the ball into the St George area. Finding his way blocked he laid the ball back to Quang Nguyen who hit a curling shot into the top left hand corner to give Clairvaux a shock lead. St George were stung by this and went back on the attack, nearly equalising on 24 minutes when Anthony Sarramea put David Grecl through on the left but his shot was saved at the near post by Clairvaux keeper Chris Enbom. The closest St George came to scoring was in the 33rd minute when a cross/shot on the left by Sarramea had Enbom beaten but hit the angle of the goal on the right and rebounded away. Clairvaux had a great chance to double their lead two minutes later when Hugo Brouste slid a ball through to Robinson who cut in from the left and only had Saints’ keeper Marko Petrovic to beat. He shot to Petrovic’s left but the keeper got down to push the ball away. St George had the better of the remainder of the half and had two great chances just a minute apart. 40th minute and a cross from Sarramea was met on the volley at the far post by Matthew Rose but he could only send the ball back across goal and out for a goal kick. Then Rose got through on the left and bore down on Enbom only to push the ball wide of the far post under pressure from the Clairvaux defence. The second half began similar to the first with the Saints making the initial running. Five minutes in and a Rose free kick went just outside Enbom’s left hand post. A minute later, Sarramea had a chance from 25 yards but blasted the ball wide right. Halama-Lumsden was causing problems for St George’s left hand defence all night and created another opportunity on 55 minutes when he went on mazy run beating two defenders before crossing into the box. But for a deflection off a St George defender, the ball would have reached Snape who was twelve yards out from goal. Six minutes after that, he beat the offside trap and laid the ball back for Nathaniel Wright to sweep the ball into the far corner for a 2-0 lead. St George had a great chance to reduce the deficit almost immediately when Sanjin Skavo beat a defender on the right and reached the six yard box on a tight angle. Instead of cutting the ball back to waiting attackers, he chose to shoot and Enbom parried the ball away for a corner. The Saints’ next chance came on 75 minutes as Grecl was through and placed the ball to Enbom’s right. The ball was heading in but the Clairvaux keeper got down to effect a fingertip save, sending the ball just outside the post. With seven minutes left, Nikola Kataric had another chance to get St George back into the game when he headed a cross from the right only to see it go the wrong side of the post with the keeper beaten. A minute later, Clairvaux then got their third goal on a counter attack. The ball came to Snape just outside the area and put a great little ball through for Christian to slot past Petrovic. St George did get the ball into the net in the third minute of added time but an off-side called chalked it off. Not many would have predicted this result, especially coming after last week’s score line. Clairvaux made the most of their chances and defended resolutely and were well worth the win. St George will be rueing a lost opportunity to stretch their lead at the top but were outplayed on the night.
Coaches Reactions:
Michael Robinson (Clairvaux Captain): “We played these boys seven days ago and lost 6-0 but we stuck with the same team tonight. Everyone put in a 100%, absolutely everyone and it was a real battling win. Our three goals were all good finishes. They had some chances but credit to our defence as it was probably our best defensive effort of the year against the top team. A big turnaround from last week.” Bojan Vilic (St George Willawong): “We didn’t take our chances. They were very difficult conditions to play in with the pitch a bit wet and bumpy. That made it difficult for us to establish our passing game and we had to be a bit more direct and we just couldn’t get through them. They deserved the win.”
Team line-ups
Clairvaux: Enbom (gk), Logan, Wright, Nguyen, Halama-Lumsden (65’), Snape, Robinson, Thorogood, Nevis, Brouste, Potter
Subs: Christian (65’)
St George Willawong: Petrovic (gk), Sarramea, Dimitrije, Stojicic, Zonjic, Kataric, Skavo, Weedy (67’), Rose (61’), Grecl (76’), Radmilovic, Burke
Subs: Jovanovic (61’), Hersi (67’), Danilo Stojicic (76’) REFEREE: Scott Russell
