A stoppage time winner from Harry Pettit saw Tuggeranong United inflict a first defeat of the season on Canberra Olympic.
Round 4 Review.
Saturday 3rd May
Tuggeranong United 3 (Jon Toole 4-, Daniel Colbertaldo 17-, Harry Pettit 92-) Canberra Olympic 2 (Mark Shields 39-, Callum Smith 61-)
A stoppage time winner from Harry Pettit saw Tuggeranong United inflict a first defeat of the season on Canberra Olympic as the hosts won 3-2 on a cold afternoon at Kambah.
United stole the points in added time when Sean Murphy crossed low into the area past the sprawling Nick Owen in the Olympic goal and Chris Ruiz helped the ball on for Pettit to stab home from close range.
It was arguably nothing more than Tuggeranong deserved for a display that was in marked contrast to last weekend-s heavy loss to Canberra FC and a performance that surprised their high flying opponents.
United got off to a flyer against a lethargic and complacent Olympic as Jon Toole showed ample composure to cut inside his marker and slot home his third goal of the season in only the fourth minute.
When Daniel Colbertaldo rifled in a low drive from 25m thirteen minutes later Tuggeranong was in dreamland.
Olympic are too good a side to be kept quiet for long however and before the break they got back into the contest after Mark Shields steered the ball into the roof of the net from six yards for his fourth of the campaign.
Substitute Callum Smith brought the teams level just past the sixty minute mark, prodding in following a goalmouth scramble inside the Tuggeranong area but, just as it appeared the points would be shared, Pettit struck the match-winner.
Sunday 4th May
Canberra FC 4 (Daniel Bennett 25-, 72-, 88-, Ian Graham 92-) Woden Valley 0
A hat-trick from Daniel Bennett ultimately gave Canberra FC their third win of the season as they defeated Woden Valley 4-0 at Deakin Stadium but the final score-line was perhaps a rough injustice on the visitors who conceded two late goals whilst attempting to find a way back into the match.
In a tight first half in which Canberra FC dominated most of the possession it took one moment of brilliance to break the deadlock.
It came midway through the half and was mostly down to the hard work put in by Alex Oloriegbe.
The forward chased a long ball and knocked it past Woden ‘keeper Jason Denham before unselfishly squaring to Bennett to fire home his fourth goal of the season.
After that chances were scarce for both teams with Oloriegbe going closet to adding to the score but seeing his one-on-one blocked by Denham.
Woden was in the game at this stage but finally was punctured in the 72nd minute as Bennett netted his second of the match.
The young winger is enjoying a superb start to the season and brought up half a dozen goals in three matches by completing his hat-trick with two minutes remaining and, with Woden aiming for a consolation, Ian Graham hit them with a fourth in stoppage time.
FFA COE 3 (Zak Waters, 55-, Daniel Maskin 56-, Nicholas D-Agostino 85-) Canberra City 0
The FFA Centre of Excellence recorded their first win of the National Premier Leagues: Capital Football season in their second outing as they saw off Canberra City 3-0 at the AIS Playing Fields with a dominant second half display in which they netted their trio of goals.
Following their narrow loss to Belconnen United in their maiden outing, hopes were high for the FFA COE and in an even first half they gave as good as they got against a City side that had looked difficult to break down so far in 2014.
However, two goals within the space of sixty seconds turned the match inexorably in favour of the home team as the FFA COE struck twice in quick succession ten minutes into the second half.
A Daniel Masking free-kick caused consternation in the City defence with the ball cannoning down off the crossbar for Zak Waters to tap home from close range for the opener before the lively Maskin made it two in two in terms of goals netting when well-placed moments later.
City, as is their wont, never gave up and continued to battle to find a way back into the match but was killed off five minutes from time when Nicholas D-Agostino found space inside the penalty are to crack home the third and decisive goal.
Monaro Panthers 3 (Stefan Todoroski (og) 35-, Thomas James 68-, Deng Padiet 78-) Cooma Tigers 1 (Goran Josifovski 47-)
Monaro Panthers stunned Cooma Tigers at the Riverside Stadium coming out on top with a 3-1 victory to arrest their early season woes.
And it was a thoroughly deserved win for Njegosh Popovich and his team whose philosophy of football proved too much for the Tigers to handle and resulted in a first win of the National Premier Leagues: Capital Football season for the Queanbeyan based side.
The match was poised on a knife-edge for large parts of the ninety minutes with chances for both teams but it was Monaro who went in front ten minutes from the break.
Martin Deng, a thorn in the Tigers side throughout, crossed into the area where the ball was steered past his own keeper by the unfortunate Stefan Todoroski.
Cooma regrouped at the interval and came out firing, equalising within two minutes of the resumption as Goran Josifovski netted.
From there it was anyone-s game but the Panthers were next to strike.
Thomas James has been an inspired signing for Monaro and the English forward bagged his fourth goal in three starts to restore the home sides- lead with twenty-two minutes remaining.
A third goal, struck by the irrepressible Deng Padiet ten minutes later, put the match out of reach of Cooma and saw Monaro take home the three points.