North Geelong Warriors overcame NPL2 East bottom-placed side Nunawading City at Mahoneys Reserve on Sunday afternoon to return to the summit of the NPL2 West ladder.
Following Melbourne City Youth’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Huss Skenderović-led Dandenong Thunder, North Geelong’s victory over Nunawading by the same scoreline saw the Warriors reclaim top spot.
First half goals to Kene Eze and Rudi Saglam were followed by second half strikes to Vito Cichello and an injury time consolation by David Antequera, handing the Warriors three points they were expected to achieve.
In a cold and wet day at Mahoneys Reserve, Hamish Flavell was given a start by Micky Čolina, who chose to rest regular starter Daniel Žilić. The only other change to the XI that took on South Melbourne on Wednesday was Michael Anderson, who came in place of the suspended Matthew Thorne.
Just nine minutes in to the encounter, the away side thought it had the lead when Kene Eze tapped in a Nathan Long cross, but the linesman adjudged Eze to have been offside, despite seemingly being behind the ball when the cross came in.
It was the second goal ruled out in just five days for North Geelong, who had a Nicholas Jurcic strike cancelled out in another marginal decision against South Melbourne on Wednesday night.
Eze wasn’t disheartened by the decision, though, and tapped home the games opening goal just four minutes later, pouncing on a loose ball in the box.
In the 16th minute, North Geelong could have made it two, but an impressive double save from Jason Koutsondontis denied the away side.
On the half hour mark, Rudi Saglam found space on the edge of the City box and hit a hard strike towards goal. His strike ricocheted off a Nunawading defender’s leg and looped over Koutsondontis into the back of the net to put North Geelong two to the good.
Just a few minutes later, Koutsondontis made a questionable decision to come off his line and was almost made to pay when a Eze flick-on found Saglam who had an open net to shoot at, but put his shot wide of the mark.
Minutes prior to the half-time interval, a perfectly delivered Nicholas Jurčić corner was met by Eze who fired a header against the woodwork and Nuna’s blushes were spared with the scoreline sitting at just 2-0 heading into the rooms.
The second half continued with North Geelong continuing to create chances and the third goal duly followed with Vito Cichello on hand to convert from close range.
Jak Banks came on late in the second half to make his North Geelong debut, but with the Warriors having made all three substitutions, when Ante Kožul went down with a suspected MCL strain, North Geelong were made to run out the remaining five minutes with ten men on the park.
Nunawading were able to take advantage of the vacated space on the left hand side and Antequera sent a low shot into the bottom-left corner of Flavell’s net to give the home side a goal for their efforts in the afternoon.
In the U20s, North Geelong secured back-to-back wins in a convincing 3-0 victory over Nunawading, with Jak Banks, Kreso Jurkovic and Sebastien Hessmann scoring the goals.
Next week, North Geelong are back in the East of Melbourne for the second of four consecutive cross-conference rounds, taking on Eastern Lions at Gardiners Creek Reserve in Burwood on Saturday at 3.00pm.
Photo: Live Pixel
