The charge towards the NPL2 premiership remains tightly contested after the top three teams all won their respective matches in round 25.
Melbourne City and Moreland Zebras have all but spurned their chances of taking the title after a draw and a loss respectively, leaving St Albans, North Geelong and Whittlesea to battle it out with three rounds to go.
North Geelong did itself no harm by notching up it’s fourth consecutive win with a 2-0 result away to Box Hill and now setting their focus on Moreland City whose roller coaster year has seen it swing in and out of top two contention all year.
Moreland’s 1-0 loss on Saturday is the second time in four weeks they have backed up with a loss after taking a major scalp, previously taking down Whittlesea, which started their poor run of form, then in the East taking the wind out of Dandenong City’s sails.
The Warriors need to be wary as that trend has replicated for Moreland all year and – with striker Apai Ukuno having notched 17 goals – the imminent threat of an upset is lurking.
The Warriors got off to a cumbersome start last week against Box Hill and although never really threatened they had wasteful attempts and got themselves into a kick chase style of play that didn’t allow them to gain the ascendancy of previous weeks.
With the scores at 0-0 at the break, the Warriors came out in the second half with gusto and on 48 minutes Matt Thorne found himself back on the scorers list after heading a well-directed header across the goal mouth to leave the Box Hill keeper stranded.
That started a series of attacks where the Warriors piled on the pressure with several entries into the box however they weren’t able to control the final touch to impact the scores.
On 57 minutes Kene Eze latched on to a loose ball at the back of the box to drive past two defenders then smash his shot into the roof of the net to seal the win.
Coach Micky Colina was delighted with his charges’ display.
“It’s our fifth win in the past six matches, but we need to continue with the high effort to stand a chance for promotion into NPL1”.
North Geelong is back home this week and kick off against Moreland City is 12.45pm for under-20 and 3pm for seniors.
