By JOSIP ZILIC
NORTH Geelong Warriors will face its toughest encounter of the year so far in an away match against Heidelberg this Sunday at Olympic Village.
The host is coming come off a comfortable 3-1 win over Broadmeadows in the FFA cup. With a balanced squad and several routes to goal, Heidelberg will be keen to stop its recent yo-yoing form to make a late charge for top spot.
North Geelong will need to dust off from a cruel 3-2 loss last Friday night to Port Melbourne.
In the opening 30 minutes Port dominated proceedings with several surging runs from Adrian Zahra and Ryan Opperman, giving the Warriors defence plenty of work.
Port opened the scoring on 23 minutes when Opperman received a beautiful ball from Zahra to split the Warriors defence and drill his shot low out of Daniel Zilic’s reach
North Geelong fought back, wrestling control in the remaining 15 minutes.
Michael Anderson was back on the scorer’s sheet at the 45th minute when he swooped on a poor clearance to sneak the ball under Michael Stark in goals and level the scores at halftime.
The Warriors took control in the second half with several attacks. In their way, though, was in-form Stark who thwarted several attempts including a goal-line clearance in the 57th minute.
The Warriors persisted, with Juso Julardzija up-ended by a clumsy challenge in the 73rd minute, earning a penalty that Matthew Townley dispatched to put the visitors up 2-1.
The Warriors didn’t hold onto the lead long, though.
In the 77th minute a Port corner kick swung into the six-yard box. North Geelong’s defenders and keeper made no attempt to clear the ball, with Chris Grossman nudging home the easiest of goals.
North’s Yusuf Yusuf almost snatched a winner on 85 minutes with a well-taken volley but Stark again was on hand to push it away.
With seconds remaining, North gave away an unnecessary free kick 30 metres out. Port pushed everyone forward to crowd the contest, the ball drifted in and was poorly cleared by Matthew Townley.
North’s defence idly watched Port attack the loose ball, with an Erhan Yalaz poke bouncing it past Zilic to agonisingly hit the post and roll into goal.
The Warriors remain third from bottom in the play-off relegation spot and will need at least one more win from the remaining three matches to secure their place.
