By MATTHEW McNAMARA

A dominant second half performance from St. Albans at McEwan Reserve in Shepparton on Sunday evening has seen the vistiors claim all three points against Goulburn Valley Suns.

After two lacklusture performances in recent weeks, St. Albans were looking to make amends. In the end, they did through a second half Nick Scerri goal.

But the first half was all the hosts', as the Suns took the ascendancy and controlled major periods of the game without being able to put the ball into the net.

Suns right back Greg Nash was the first to create a clear cut scoring opportunity, cutting in from the right side before unleashing a powerful left footed drive that had Stuart Webster scrambling.

Webster was in the thick of things moments later when his poor clearance fell to the feet of Joseph Hogarty. Hogarty looked to loop the ball over the out of position keeper, but his strike went wide.

With just under half an hour played, Webster was beaten. This time Adam Scott cut in from the left hand side before slotting the ball past Webster, but the upright came to the rescue of the custodian.

St Albans then had a glorious chance to take the lead against the run of play when Tedros Yabio found himself on the end of a Trent Waterson cross, but the winger couldn’t do justice to Waterson’s fantastic ball.

The home side should have taken the lead in the dying moments of the opening period when Matthew Lelliot’s deflected strike fell to the feet of Sean Ellis but Webster pulled off a great double save to keep the scores level.

The second period saw St. Albans come out with significant intent, and this intent was realised when Nick Scerri was the beneficiary of some lacklusture Suns defending. Scerri looped his strike over Phil Petrovski to give the visitors the lead.

They should have doubled their lead with 20 minutes remaining when again Waterson supplied a sublime ball, only for Barry Devlin to head narrowly wide.

With full time whistle approaching Yabio could have sealed the points for St. Albans but his header was well denied by Petrovski.

The visitors held on however, clinching a 1-0 victory and relegating the Suns to their second straight defeat.

Match Details:

Goulburn Valley Suns 0 lost to St. Albans Saints 1 (Scerri 55’) at McEwan Reserve, Shepparton

Goulburn Valley Suns: 1. Philip Petrovski, 5. Jordan Montagner, 6. Nikolaos Kalafatis (13. Frank Mariner 66’), 3. Greg Nash, 4. Naum Sekulovski (21. Yasser Alghazaly 60’), 16. Matthew Lelliot, 14. Joseph Hogarty (18. Connor Campbell 69’), 19. Sean Ellis, 20. Vani Shamoon, 7. Adam Scott, 9. Craig Carley

Unused Subs: 21. Jake Keating, 17. Daniel Birch

Yellow Cards: Lelliot 30’, Carley 63’

St. Albans Saints: 1. Stuart Webster, 2. Ryan McGuffie, 3. Nana Yaw Otmo, 4. Nicholas Sarbin, 5. Tedros Yabio, 23. Daniel Sweeney, 7. Trent Waterson, 8. Ross Harvey, 9. Barry Devlin, 11. Nicholas Scerri (10. Yusuf Yusuf 69’), 15. Konrad Dorbraszkiewicz

Unused Subs: 12. Damien Peters, 20. Ante Kozul, 21. Johnny Scollo, 17. Matko Budimir