North Queensland Fury 2-3 Melbourne Heart
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Melbourne Heart beat North Queensland Fury 3-2 away at Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville last night to move into 5th spot on the A-League ladder with 20 points.
It was the Fury’s third home game in 11 days and they haven’t won a point.
Fury almost took an early lead, but Dyron Daal’s goal-bound shot from the right was cleared off the line by Michael Beauchamp.
In the 12th minute, however, a free-kick by Panni Nikas was deflected by Daal past Clint Bolton to put the home side ahead.
Fury’s Isaka Cernak was taking a lot of punishment from the Heart and Michael Marrone and Wayne Srhoj were both booked before half an hour was up by 24-year old referee Jarred Gillett, who is the youngest A-League referee and who was in charge of only his third match in this league.
The Heart’s Nick Kalmar was replaced by Eli Babalj in the 37th minute and it was the substitute who grabbed the equaliser 5 minutes into the second half from Rutger Worm’s pass, with the home side screaming for off-side.
David Williams should have restored the Fury’s lead in the 54th minute when Heart defender Aziz Behich slipped at the vital moment, but he missed an absolute sitter that will haunt him for a while.
A minute later, Daal should have done better than head Payne’s perfect cross from the right harmlessly over the bar.
Heart punished Fury for their profligacy when, in the 59th minute, Gerald Sibon controlled the ball after Balbalj’s touch from inside the box and turned to shoot beyond Justin Pasfield to make it 2-1 for the visitors. Again Fury complained, this time for an alleged handball by Sibon, but Mr Gillett was razor sharp in his decision making and allowed the goal to stand.
In the 64th minute, it was 3-1 as Adrian Zahra easily fired home Srhoj’s square pass across the box from the right with not a defender in sight.
Seven minutes from the end, substitute Simon Colosimo tripped Daal and Mr Gillett awarded the home side a penalty. Substitute Ufuk Talay netted with the spot-kick but was ordered to retake it because of an infringement by a team-mate. He nevertheless despatched the second penalty with ease to make it one goal the difference.
Fury almost snatched a late equaliser when substitute Jason Spagnuolo worked his way into the box but his shot was just wide of the far post.
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North Queensland Fury: Pasfield - Grossman (Spagnuolo 72), Malik, Hughes, McDonald - Daal, Edds, Nikas, Cernak (Sipi 64) - Williams, Payne (Talay 72) [Substitute not used: Usai]
Booked: Spagnuolo
Goals: Daal 12, Talay 83 pen
Melbourne Heart: Bolton - Marrone, Thompson (Colosimo 63), Beauchamp, Behich - Skoko, Srhoj, Kalmar (Babalj 37) - Zahra, Sibon, Worm (Alex Terra 78) [Substitute not used: Zois]
Booked: Marrone, Srhoj, Babalj, Colosimo
Goals: Babalj 50, Sibon 59, Zahra 64
Ref: J Gillett
1 comment:
This was an exciting game. I hope to see more like it.
Alf Ramsey
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