By Daniel Baricevic (@danielbara4)

Avondale Heights continued its strong start to the NPL 1 season after comfortably defeating an inconsistent Whittlesea Ranges side 4-2 in what was an entertaining encounter at Epping Stadium on Friday night.

First-half goals from Opeksiy Khrapko and the impressive Andrew Le Page gave Avondale the advantage heading into the halftime break, and it was the away side which came out firing in the second half.

Jason Principato added a third shortly after the interval, before Khrapko scored his second of the night just minutes later to put the game seemingly beyond Whittlesea’s reach.

However, a close-range finish from substitute Ahmet Turer and an opportunist strike from Tomislav Trbuhovich made for a nervy ending for Avondale, which managed to hold on to record back-to-back wins.

The match began rather cagily with both sides struggling to create clear-cut chances, but it was Le Page who came closest after being played through on the wing, though he could only fire his shot straight into the palms of Whittlesea goalkeeper Anthony Raspudic.

There wasn’t much Raspudic could do however when Khrapko received the ball just outside the 18-yard area, before curling a left-footed strike into the bottom left corner to open the scoring for Avondale in the 29th minute.

Just two minutes later, Le Page atoned for his earlier miss after some good build-up play from the away side left the young winger with only the goalkeeper to beat, and he made no mistake to put Avondale two to the good.

Le Page’s pace and directness caused his opposing left-back John Reale problems all night, leaving Whittlesea coach Vinko Buljubasic frustrated in his technical area.

The opening 10 minutes of the second half looked more of an even contest, with Ranges’ influential midfielder Nicholas Sarbin dropping deeper in the midfield to set the tempo, while captain Daniel Giogha worked tirelessly up front to try and create chances.

But it was to no avail as Avondale striker Principato netted in his own rebound from a tight angle, and the game threatened to get away from the home side.

Any hopes of a Whittlesea comeback were quashed when Khrapko cheekily lobbed Raspudic just four minutes later to put the away side 4-0 up on 59 minutes.

The injection of Ahmet Turer and Rami Mustafovski into the game paid dividends for Whittlesea, as Mustafovski’s cutback into the box was finished by Turer to finally put the home side on the score sheet.

The Ranges faithful were dreaming of a famous comeback when Tomislav Trbuhovich finished past Avondale shot-stopper Anthony Saric from the edge of the area in the 85th minute, but it wasn’t to be.
Whittlesea captain Daniel Giogha rued his side’s inability to play its best football from the opening whistle.

“We left it late like always, like Round 1 we were 3-1 down to Kingston City, then we waited until the end to come back,” Giogha said.

“It was the same tonight, 4-0 down and then we decided to play…if we can play right from the start then we can start getting a few results.”

When asked if he could take any positives out of the match, Giogha was cautiously optimistic.

“Obviously when we play our best football no-one can come close to us, so there’s always a positive, but we have to start getting rid of those negatives,” he said/

Avondale’s star man Andrew Le Page said his team’s success had come from its good starts.

“We started well early, we got out of the blocks pretty well and I think we’ve emphasised that all week – it was a carry on from last week,” Le Page said.

“In saying that, it’s probably a bit disappointing we copped the two goals at the end of the game.”

MATCH DETAILS

Whittlesea Ranges 2 (Turer 75’, Trbuhovich 82’)  defeated Avondale Heights 4 (Khrapko 29’ 59’, Le Page 31’, Principato 55’) at Epping Stadium. [HT: 0-2]

Whittlesea Ranges: 1. Anthony RASPUDIC, 20. Christopher STOJCEVSKI, 4. Mark VANGELI, 23. Daniel SOTIROPOULOS, 15. John REALE, 18. Nicholas SARBIN (16. Mile RISTOV 74’), 21. Johnny VOLKANOVSKI (Ahmet TURER 60’), 25. Daniel GIOGHA, 13. Adem MUSTEDANAGIC (24. Rami MUSTAFOVSKI 60’), 12. Tomislav TRBUHOVICH, 7. Jarrod DEL MONACO

Unused Subs: 2. Lachlan STAGG, 3. Berkan YURDAKUL

Yellow Cards: None.

Red Cards: None.

Avondale Heights: 1. Anthony SARIC (GK), 6. Anthony STRANO, 7. Andrew LE PAGE, 9. Anthony FALLONE, 10. Burakhan KOCA, 15. Zoran PAJIC, 19. Jason PRINCIPATO (11. Bale MICOVSKI 66’), 24. Resit CULCULOGLU, 27. Julien CANNIZZARO (5. Andrew SACCHETA 82’), 33. Dean CAMPELJ, 34. Opeksiy KHRAPKO (8. Bosin GEORGEVSKI 73’)

Unused Subs: 20. John SCOLLO, 14. Daniel SLOVACEK

Yellow Cards: PRINCIPATO 61’

Red Cards: None.