By Daniel Campos @francisfields

Upon kick-off it was visitors Moreland City having to do defensive duties straight away. The hosts took full command of the match from midfield.

Chances went begging courtesy of Teddy Yabio as the Saints' forward amazingly misjudged a cheeky lob after a blunder by defender Orhan Kara in a mix up with a back-pass as his header left Galgano stranded.

On the other end, the opener arrived on 22 minutes with Welsh import Corey Thomas from midfield deciding to push up and play a smart one-two with Moe Kurucu on the right wing and the youngster cut the ball back nicely for Thomas to pin-point the ball to the top right corner.

Saints goalkeeper John Scollo, who got a rare start, was left stranded and helpless as the opener put the visitors in the lead at a handy moment in the game.

On the half-hour mark Daniel Sweeney took a stinging volley from 40 metres out with his left foot that almost caught Brandon Galgano by surprise. It went just wide off the mark. Other than that the Saints could not fully capitalise much of their possession domination.

Half-time was nearing and the visitors had the early upper hand.
In the second forty-five, Barry Devlin was more present up front for the hosts. Trying to combine with

Yabio was an obstacle all afternoon as Moreland City's defensive pair of Orry Kara and Nejdet Sahin got the job done.

Konrad Dobraszkeiwicz smartly anticipated a resulting Moreland City corner and cleared the ball off the goal line to save the Saints' woes and prevent a second goal barely five minutes in from the restart.

Lisandro Paz was causing all sorts of headaches consistently on the left wing, though at times unsettled with the bumpy surface. Moe Kurucu kept his composure breaking on the right wing looking to repeat his earlier effort and cut-in a cross for an oncoming teammate to finish.

Adrian Mather's men were looking to maintain that consistency shown in the first half and kept the rhythm of the match to their favour.

"Things were a little scrappy with the conditions but we expected it. And heading into this game we were coming off a high after beating Melbourne Victory so the boys I think did well under the circumstances, you know, after missing out on that second play-off spot."

"When you look at results of other teams we are in a position where we need to depend on those results. It's not always the best but you've got to try to remain positive. And that's what I salvage from my players. We kept our head up and we got the result, we got the three points under these tight conditions."

"We look forward next weekend to face Bulleen Lions as premiers. In some regard, it's good to pay them our respects on our home ground. It will be the last round for the season and when you're part of this system, of this league you realise how hard it is to win a league."

Custodian Galgano denied Devlin twice in a matter of minutes nearing full time and that proved to be vital, had St Albans score twice in those opportunities.

"I am already looking forward to improving my squad into next season and give some of our younger boys a run next round against a top side like Bulleen. You make some errors during the season and you learn from your mistakes. In order to achieve your targets you need to make assessments", Mather concluded.

MATCH DETAILS:

Moreland City 1 (Corey Thomas 22') defeated St Albans 0 at Churchill Reserve.

St Albans Saints: 21. John SCOLLO (GK), 2. Ryan McGUFFIE, 3. Nana Yew OTUO-ACHEAMPONG, 4. Nicholas SARBIN, 5. Teddy YABIO, 8. Ross HARVEY, 9. Barry DEVLIN, 13. Anthony BORAS (20. Ante KOZUL 57'), 15. Konrad DOBRASZKEIWICZ, 18. Ben SHAPER, 23. Daniel SWEENEY (19. George NICESKI 79').
Unused Subs: 6. Stjepan TRBUHOVIC, 16. Chris SIKETA, 1. Dilan IBRAHIM.
Yellow Cards: Nil.
Red Cards: Nil.

Moreland City: 1. Brandon GALGANO, 2. Yang TOU YENG, 18. Orry KARA, 5. Yanni AVSANIDIS, 21. Nejed SAHIN, 12. Shane CARR, 4. Quinn McDONALD (17. Liam BRIAN 62'), 8. Corey THOMAS, 9. Lisandro PAZ, 14. Liam FRANCIS (3. Finn HUZZEY 70'), 23. Mo KURUCU.
Unused Subs: 31. Hew PORTER, 14. Alex PETROVSKI, 7. Osman KOSE.
Yellow Cards: Nil.
Red Cards: Nil.