Round 7 of the State League One season saw Langwarrin emerge victorious in the battle between the conference’s best two teams, while the Altona Magic continued to strengthen their lead at the top of the North-West. The eagerly-anticipated fixture between rivals North Sunshine Eagles and Preston Lions ended in a score draw while there were much needed wins for the previously winless Mooroolbark and Westgate – the latter storming to a 6-3 away win over the Essendon Royals.
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In the South-East, the top-of-the-table clash between surprise packets Caulfield United Cobras and Langwarrin saw the visitors triumph 5-2 as their imports ran riot at Victory Park. Braces to Englishman Connor Belger and recent Scottish signing Liam Baxter – in addition to a further strike by young Scot Aaron Currie – helped steer Gus Macleod’s men on their way to all three points. Cobras striker Cort Kibler-Melby scored a double himself as the hosts ended the game with ten men following the sending off of Tom Rankin, leaving Langy four points clear at the top of the standings.
Pre-season promotion favourites Mornington are six points behind in fourth after an impressive 4-0 win away to Warragul United with all four goals coming in the second half. Two goals from Ryan Paczkowski as well as Steve Elliot’s opener and substitute Nathan Smith’s strike did the damage.
Third placed Manningham United slipped up with a home defeat at the hands of St Kilda, who earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory. A 40th minute strike from Carlos Viveros separated the two sides as the Celts ended the Blues’ four game winning streak in a fixture played out at Park Avenue Reserve, surprisingly without the usual goalscoring exploits of Steve McRae who was left on the bench.
Clifton Hill got their season back on track after a 3-0 defeat of the struggling Casey Comets at Quarries Park. A second-half double to former VPL Championship winner Michael Catalano and a goal from substitute Phillip Vaiopoulos secured the win for a side who have recently signed full-back Johnny MacRae from Altona Magic.
Down at Warner Reserve, rivals South Springvale and Malvern City cancelled each other in a 1-1 draw which does no favours to either side. Former Box Hill forward Michael Kariuki struck first for the hosts before the scoring was levelled by City winger Brad Blumenthal, with each player netting their third goal of the season as the visitors introduced new signing Antun Vulic (previously at Caulfield United Cobras) into the contest late on against his old club.
Finally there was a win at last for Mooroolbark, who defeated Morwell Pegasus 2-1 at Esther Park. A brace from Ross Clark in the second half which fell either side of a goal by ex-Bendigo City defender Wahid Hashimi contributed to the result which sees the Barkers move level on points with the Casey Comets in the relegation zone, one point behind 10th place Malvern. In further news, Pegasus have confirmed the signing of local teen and former Melbourne City Youth Baley Row from Box Hill United.
Former Bentleigh Greens forward Paczkowski is the division’s top scorer with six goals with Cobras spearhead Kibler-Melby, Langy attacker Belger and the Celts Kiwi marksman Steve McRae behind on five with a further eight players sitting on four goals after the conclusion of Round 7.
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In the North-West, the Altona Magic stretched their lead at the top to six points following a 1-0 win over rivals Geelong. A Tobias Haegele shirt-pull on Harry Hillary-Jenkins presented American Daniel Kuczynski to open the scoring for the hosts from the spot only to see Magic shot-stopper Sebastien Bechaud save his attempt. That miss proved costly as Goran Lozanovski’s men grabbed the game’s sole goal just after the hour mark when Scottish striker Jon McShane netted his third of the campaign after a neat cutback from the hard-working Klim Dimitrieski.
Banyule City overtook Geelong into third place after defeating second placed Keilor Park 3-1 in a result which ends their five-game winning streak. Ben Hampson gave the Bulls an early lead only for Joel Nikolic to move clear on top of the goalscoring charts with his seventh in six games to level things up just before the break. However, Troy Pennycooke-Morgan proved to be the visitors’ hero on the day with a well-taken brace in the second half to continue Banyule’s reputation of being the competition’s dark horses.
Over at Larissa Reserve, Welsh forward Chris Davies continued his good goalscoring form against North Sunshine with a second minute opener to hand Lou Acevski’s Preston the perfect start. However, a goal from Eagles player-coach Arben Isai ten minutes from time ensured both sides shared the points in an afternoon where the Lions debuted their new striker Paul Harvey, who has joined the club following his departure from Dandenong City nearly a fortnight ago.
The Western Suburbs moved into sixth just behind the Eagles after a 4-1 win over Altona East Phoenix at Ralph Reserve on Sunday afternoon. Ajak Panek broke the deadlock in first-half stoppage time before goals to Deang Aguek and Ivan Romero extended the Suburbs lead on the hour mark. Liam Francis grabbed a consolation strike for the visitors as Dan Gathercole secured the victory with a fourth in injury time.
Sydenham Park and Yarraville split the points in 1-1 draw at Keilor Lodge Reserve with Glory striker Keith Burch netting goal number five of his campaign.
Finally there was victory at long last for Westgate, who went to Ormond Park and ended a barren run of six defeats with a memorable 6-3 win over the Essendon Royals. A hat-trick to recent arrival Gino Defeo separated the two sides, with the Englishman now sitting on four goals from his first two games at Sindeljic. Andre Raffo, Charlie Bailey and Dejan Mitrovic also found themselves on the scoresheet in the second half, with the Royals’ goalscorers being Kenta Murakami, Yosuke Saito and Albert Zorzanello in a triumphant day for Kevin Taylor’s men.
Nikolic leads the conference goalscoring charts with seven goals while Adamson Ajayi and Pennycooke-Morgan are joint second with six, while imports Burch, Davies and Saito all have five themselves.