By Matthew Naqvi (@MatthewNaqvi)

A focussed Avondale Heights continued their impressive start to the NPL1 season with a 3-0 victory over Moreland Zebras at Avondale Heights Reserve on Saturday afternoon.

Moreland started the game well, dominating possession and dictating the pace,  but it came to no avail when Heights striker Opeksiy Khrapko was charged into and awarded a penalty in the ninth minute.

Khrapko placed the penalty into the bottom left-hand corner to put the home side up 1-0.

The following twenty minutes ebbed and flowed with both teams trying to attack as freely as possible, but strong formations prevented too much progress going forward.

 Resit Culculoglu was a general in the midfield and restricted the Moreland midfield greatly.  

In the 32nd minute, Avondale earned a corner and made the most of it with Zoran Pajic heading in from the back  posts to give the hosts a two-goal buffer.

Just before the halftime break, James Papadimitriou was given a straight red card for a horrible lunging tackle on  Avondale striker Andrew Le Page.

Avondale went into the second half confident with a two-goal advantage and an extra man on the field.

The first 25 minutes  of the second stanza were largely an arm-wrestle between the midfields with little action in front of goal.

 Three yellow cards were given in this bracket, highlighting the close and tough nature of the game.

In the dying minutes of the contest, Avondale surged forward with the fresh legs of Jason Principato, who took on the Moreland defence and blasted the ball past the goalkeeper to cap off a clinical performance by the home team.

Avondale Heights coach Anthony Barbieri was happy with his side’s performance against a tough Moreland outfit.

“I thought we were quite organised, soild and structured. We worked a bit on some things during the week and our boys stuck to the game plan and got the result,” Barbieri said.

“We enjoy playing at home and I think Moreland  is a really good side and they’ve got quality around the park, especially up front so the boys stuck to their guns and got the result.”

Moreland coach Danny Gnjidic was disappointed with the result but proud of his side’s effort after being reduced to 10 men just before halftime.

“I thought we made a really good start. We got a chance in the opening minute, the young boy you hope can at least hit the target but then it goes down the other end and we give away a penalty, a pretty soft penalty. So any confidence we recaptured after the last result we had a couple of weeks ago evaporated pretty quickly,” Gnjidic said.

“To the player’s credit I thought they dug deep, I can’t question the effort and dedication to the cause today. It was just one of those days where everything that can go wrong is and the penalty was testament to that and the red card was probably the nail in the coffin.”
    
MATCH DETAILS

FT: Avondale Heights 3 (Khrapko 9’ pen., Pajic 33’, Principato 87’) defeated Moreland Zebras 0 at Avondale Heights Reserve [HT: 2-0]

AVONDALE HEIGHTS: 1. Anthony SARIC (GK), 2. Julien CANNIZZARO, 13. Dean CAMPELJ, 15. Zoran PAJIC, 3. Anthony STRANO, 24. Resit CULCULOGLU, 8. Bosin GEORGEVSKI, 10. Burakhan KOCA (5. Andrew SACCHETA 70’), 11. Bale MICOVSKI (14. Daniel SLOVACEK 78’), 7. Andrew LE PAGE, 9. Opeksiy KHRAPKO (17. Jason PRINCIPATO  82’).

Unused Subs: 4.Christopher VARTACI, 20. John SCOLLO,

Yellow Cards: Bale Micovski (29’), Zoran Pajic (60’), Burakhan Koca (63’)

Red Cards: None

MORELAND ZEBRAS: 21. Nicola KOSTADINOVSKI, 5. Nick SYMEOY, 18. Adam CENTOFANTI, 16. Mile MEDJENOVIC, 10. Danillo BONILLO-OSPINA, 22. Robert ARELINI (Brad MURRAY 73’), 7. Scott ROBSON, 4. Liam BRIAN (14. James PAPADIMITRIOU 90+2’), 15. Evan BATSIS (Danny CHARALAMBOUS 66’), 9. Joel NIKOLIC

Unused Subs: 1. Alex STOJANOVSKI (GK), 3. Johnny CRIVELLI

Yellow Cards: Joel Nicolic (84’)

Red Cards: James Papadimitriou (42’)