By Rory Flanagan (@Rory_Flanagan)

George Howard’s 58th-minute rocket was enough to give Box Hill United a 1-0 victory over Kingston City on Sunday afternoon.

Spectators had to endure a freezing and frustrating 90 minutes at Wembley Park with a number of fouls and poor passages of play ruining the game as a spectacle.

The last time the two sides met, Kingston snatched a stoppage time draw thanks to James Karvelis after United suddenly capitulated despite being two goals and a man up.

Victory trialist Howard helped his side atone for its previous self-destruction after coming on as a half time substitute and injecting more pace into the game, before blasting home a vicious volley just inside the area.

With both sides crawling out of the blocks, the first noteworthy incident came at the 15-minute mark.

United’s top scorer Rini Muriqi raced into the box before being blatantly brought down, but his appeal fell on deaf ears as the referee waved play on.

It was the visitors who had the best chance to take the lead when Gino Defeo escaped the attention of Adrian Del Monaco and went one on one with Pavlidis.

The Kingston marksman beat the Box Hill custodian but couldn’t beat the post as his effort rebounded back into the grateful arms of the ‘keeper.

United’s gloveman was on form from then onwards, reacting superbly to block a close-range effort from Karvelis.

He didn’t have much to do for the remainder of the first half with play struggling to flow thanks to a number of feeble yellow cards issued by the referee.

Kingston came out sharply at the restart, forcing Pavlidis into one of the saves of the season to deny Nic Miliaresis’ header in the away side’s best move of the match involving Defeo and Etheridge.

Box Hill responded quickly and thought it had taken the lead when Josh Valadon nodded home from a goalmouth scramble, only for the referee to penalise the centreback for a push.

Clear-cut chances were hard to come by and George Howard took his superbly to give United the lead.

After a delightful first touch to control a high ball, the Victory trialist jinked past his marker before rattling the crossbar from distance.

On the follow-up he made no mistake and thumped a venomous half-volley into the back of the net to boost his side’s promotion ambition.

Damien Peters attempted to extend the lead and in the process emulate his idol Paul Scholes with a spectacular volley but miscued his effort.

Again contentious refereeing came to the fore late in the game when Nick Modaffari barged into Matt Waters as the last defender and looked set to be sent off, but not even a foul was awarded to the bewilderment of the home fans.

Fortunately the decision had little effect on the outcome as Box Hill held on to continue the pursuit of North Geelong in the race for second place.

Box Hill travel to Bendigo next Saturday night while Kingston City host Springvale White Eagles on Monday night.

MATCH DETAILS

Box Hill United 1 (Howard 58’) defeated Kingston City 0 at Wembley Park (HT 0-0)

Box Hill United: Alexander Pavlidis, Matt Collier, Josh Valadon, Adrian Del Monaco, Aaron Porcaro, Damien Peters, Nick Kokolakis, Amgad Marieh (George Howard 46’), Chris Irwin (Imran Sankoh 90), Matt Waters (Alex Schroen 65’), Rinor Muriqi

Unused: Alexander Connell, Thomas Simos.

Yellow cards: Marieh, Kokolakis, Pavlidis

Kingston City: Nicholas Woolward, Peter Lord, James Karvelis, Nick Modaffari, George Stavridis, Nick Stamatiou (Tas Agapitos 75’), Andrew Doig, Velibor Mitrovic, Nic Miliaresis (John MacLean 60’), Gino Defeo (Stelios Konstandinidis 81’), Max Etheridge

Unused: Sermin Sadikovski, Kemal Curan.

Yellow cards: Doig 20’ Miliaresis 25’