By Brandon Galgano (@bgalgano94) 

St Albans Saints confirmed its status as one of the promotion favourites with a dominant 3-0 victory over Whittlesea Ranges at Churchill Reserve tonight. 

Goals from Nicholas Cullen, Brodie Patterson and Tedros Yabio sealed a massive three points for the hosts who continue to chase that elusive second promotion place. 

The hosts came into the match following a sensational mid-week victory over Parramatta in their Westfield FFA Cup Round of 32 clash.

For the Ranges though it was another disappointing day with Vinko Buljubasic’s side having now lost their past three matches in a row. 

It was evident from the start that it would be a difficult day for the visitors with St Albans creating the first opportunity of the match inside the opening minute, with a fantastic Patterson free-kick headed just wide by Saints skipper Ryan McGuffie. 

Patterson continued to orchestrate the St Albans attack through the middle and via the set piece with another dangerous corner directed on goal by McGuffie, only for his effort to be headed away off the goal line in the 10th minute. 

The hosts only had to wait 120 seconds more before opening the scoring though as a speculative long pass from Paterson wasn’t dealt with by the Whittlesea defence, allowing Nicholas Cullen to sneak in and slot home giving the hosts a deserved lead. 

St Albans very nearly made it two in the 30th minute as a spectacular turn and strike by Barry Devlin from 35 yards out flashed centimetres wide, with Rangers keeper Greg Lascaris well beaten. 

The second half saw the visitors come out of the blocks determined to get an equaliser as they put pressure on the St Albans goal, but any hopes of a comeback were dealt a massive blow just 12 minutes into the second half. 

Having been on the back foot after the break St Albans broke forward on the counter with Cullen winning the ball deep inside the Rangers half. 

Wrestling off the challenge of Reale, the goal scorer crossed low and hard across the box, finding Patterson free at the back post who tapped home to make it 2-0. 

From there it was all St Albans who continued to hammer the Whittlesea goal and it made the points safe with just two minutes to play through former Melbourne Victory youth midfielder Tedros Yabio. 

A fantastic pass from the middle found Devlin who used his size and strength to get into the box, before cutting back brilliantly for the young midfielder who slotted home past Lascaris to make it 3-0. 

Saints coach Toby Paterson was understandably delighted with his side’s performance following a long week. 

“I was very pleased with the boys because we’ve had a massive week with the game against Avondale Heights on the weekend, and then to go to Parramatta against a quality side like that and get a win was a massive buzz,” Paterson said.

“To the boys credit we’ve had a short turnaround of just three days so to back that up again with a win today was just sensational.”

Rangers coach Buljubasic was disappointed with his sides defending on occasion but was still pleased with the effort shown by his players. 

“It’s obviously a very disappointing, their first goal was a mistake at the back which cost us early on but I can’t fault the effort of the boys,” Buljubasic said.

“We now need to try to win as many of the remaining games as we can while assessing which players here are the future of the club and who will need to move on next year.”

Match Details:

St Albans Saints 3 (Cullen 12’, Paterson 57’, Yabio 88’) defeated Whittlesea Rangers 0 at Churchill Reserve 

St Albans Starting XI: 1 Stuart Webster, 2 Ryan Mc Guffie ©, 4 Barry Devlin, 14 Christopher Ross, 5 Felix Rosman, 18 Tedros Yabio, 8 Ross Harvey, 10 Brodie Patterson (12 Chol Nyok 73’), 17 Adam Nakic, 15 Konrad Dobraszkiewicz (9 Sean McIlroy 68’), 13 Nicholas Cullen (11 Yusef Yusef 62’) 

Unused Substitutes: 21 Tonio Barisic, 16 Ajak Panek 

Goal Scorers: 12’ Nicholas Cullen, 57’ Brodie Patterson, 88’ Tedros Yabio

Yellow Cards:  79’ Christopher Ross 

Red Cards: Nil 

Whittlesea Rangers XI: 1 Gregory Lascaris, 6 Andrew Taylor, 23 Daniel Sotiropoulos ©, 15 John Reale, 13 Adem Mustadanagic (12 Matthew Simjanovski 85’), 14 Daniel Peluso, 9 Kliment Dimitrieski, 24 Rami Mustafoski (25 Matthew Kondevski 58’), 17 Girolamo Costanza, 16 Mile Ristov, 3 Berkan Yurdakul 

Unused Substitutes: 27 Jarrod Hill, 20 Christopher Stojcevski, 19 Damian Saljanovski 

Goal Scorers: Nil 

Yellow Cards: 71’ John Reale