Round 12 of NPL Capital Football saw Woden Valley win the battle of the cellar dwellers, while two of the matches were postponed due to inclement conditions.
Woden Valley celebrated their second win of the season on Sunday afternoon as they defeated bottom of the table Canberra City 3-0 at Hawker Football Centre.
With Kaleen Enclosed unplayable, the match was switched to the synthetic surface and Woden wasted no time settling into the encounter. The hosts took the lead after only fifty seconds with a stunning strike.
Tom Hirst, recently returned to the club from England, collected the ball some thirty metres from goal and set his sights to rifle home a thunderous drive that rocketed past James Ward in the City goal and threatened to tear the net from its stanchion as it whistled into the top corner.
It was just the start that Woden craved and left City playing catch-up, an all too familiar position for Nick Palagyi and his team this season. Their position was worsened in the 24th minute as Woden went 2-0 ahead through another superbly taken goal. Marco Gayer had the confidence and ability to take on the City defence out wide, weaving his way into the penalty area and blasting a vicious cross-shot past Ward and into the far side-netting for a brilliant goal.
Leading 2-0 at the break it was Woden’s match to lose and they added a third to seal the deal just before the sixty minute mark as Andrew Slavich rounded off the win with his second of the season.
Meanwhile, Belconnen United increased their lead at the top of the National Premier Leagues: Capital Football league ladder with a comprehensive 4-1 victory over the FFA Centre of Excellence at the AIS Grass Fields on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon.
The Blue Devils never looked likely to be coming away with anything less than the full quota of points after Marty Raines netted his first goal in the NPL for the club. The forward, recovered from injury, had also scored in the midweek Federation Cup semi-final victory over Canberra Olympic, and continued his good form with the opener here.
Youngster Aisosa Ihegie also scored twice in that Cup match and therefore few were surprised when the leggy striker added to Raines’ opener seven minutes later to open up a two-goal cushion and leave the FFA with plenty to do after the break. Any hopes that the FFA COE had of getting back into the match were dispelled within eight minutes of the restart as the in-form Tom McLachlan struck for the sixth time in the league this season.
With FFA COE committed forward, the Blue Devils were able to add to their tally as Dustin Wells hit home his eighth of the campaign from a 58th minute penalty.
There was time for the Centre of Excellence to pull one back, through Daniel Maskin, but they were second best on the day to a title chasing Belconnen.
The other two matches – Tuggeranong United v Canberra FC and Monaro Panthers v Canberra Olympic – were postponed.
Click here for the details from both completed matches.