By: ANDREW BISHARA (@_AndrewBishara)

Photo: SIMON DUNSTER / THE SPORTING WALL

Moreland Zebras have made it three wins in a row after a 7-1 win over Nunawading City at Mahoneys Reserve on Sunday afternoon.

Hattricks from Danny Charalambous and James Kelly, and a strike from James Papadimitrov saw the Zebras cancel out David Morovic's sole consolation.

Charalambous got the ball rolling when he split open the City defence with a lovely through ball to the running Papadimitrov, who blasted the ball low into the net.

It didn't take City long to draw level when Zebras goalkeeper Nikola Kostadinovski miscontrolled a back pass and poorly cleared the ball to Morovic.

With the goalkeeper far off his line, the winger calmly lobbed a lovely ball into the open net to make it one-apiece.

However, City lived dangerously by constantly playing out from the back.

Moreland pressed high up the pitch, consistently dispossessing the City midfield and defence.

It had to rely on goalkeeper Keegan Coulter to bail them out with some marvelous saves, including denying Joel Nikolic's open-goal chance.

Finally the pressure paid off when Kelly collected a bad pass, sprinted into the box and rifled a bullet right into the top corner.

Charalambous got in the act when he broke behind the City line and found himself one-on-one with Coulter, and coolly dinked the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper to put Moreland in control.

Coulter was at fault for Moreland's fourth when Kelly smashed it from outside the box and the ball slipped through the custodian’s hands.

The second half followed much of the same pattern of the first with the Zebras suffocating City in its half and taking advantage of its turnovers.

Charalambous got his second when a pinpoint ball from Bradley Murray picked out the midfielder in a packed City box, where he quick-footed past his marker and rolled the ball past Coulter.

The attacker finally completed a perfect day when he got on the end of a lovely cross from Adam Centofanti to header in his hattrick.

It was then Kelly's turn to get his hattrick when during a scramble from a corner, the midfielder dived in to knock in the loose ball, to complete the rout.

 

Match details

Nunawading City 1 (David Morovic 10') lost to Moreland Zebras 7 (James Papadimitrov 5', James Kelly 37', 45', 90', Danny Charalambous 40', 66', 80')

Nunawading City: 1: Keegan COULTER (GK), 23: Jack GOW, 10: Ivan SKORICH, 6: Jack LOUZIOTIS, 7: Anthony GIANNOPOLOUS (9. David ANTEQUERA 60’), 12: Chris GURR (43. Peter EVANGELAKOS 35’), 17: David MOROVIC (20. Stephan PAPAGEORGIOU 71’), 8: Mincen CUI, 3: Trung LUU, 16: Spencer EGAN-TANNER, 19: John-luc SILVESTRI

Yellow Cards: Nil.

Red Cards: Nil.

Moreland Zebras: 1. Nikola KOSTADINOVSKI (GK), 3. Johnny CRIVEL (6. Adam CENTAFANTI 46’), 2. Simon SYMEOY, 5. Daniel PETROV, 4. Steve MARTIN, 8. Joshua MCMONAGLE-IHASZ, 10. Danny CHARALAMBOUS, 9. Joel NIKOLIC (11. Bale MICOVSKI 60’), 14. James PAPADIMITRIOU (17. Chris TRANTAFILOPOULOS 67’), 19. James KELLY,12. Bradley MURRAY

Unused Subs: 21. Alex STOJANOVSKI, 22. Ryan MURRAY

Yellow Cards: KELLY 56’

Red Cards: Nil.