Coniston have showed that they are the team to beat after downing Albion Park White Eagles 1-0 at Terry Reserve on Saturday afternoon.
Both sides started a little cagey with probing attacks early that really led to nothing of significance.
Some good work through the Coniston midfield on eight minutes saw Jayden Smileski slide Temma Nomura down the right side. He cut the ball back to Adrian Cabral whose first touch let him down as he bore down on goal.
Albion Park White Eagle’s first opportunity fell to Liam Wille as he sliced through the Coniston defence and fired a shot from just outside the area towards goal however, it went straight to new signing Luke Genua in goal.
On 18 minutes, Tobias Norval found Harrison Anagnostopoulos on the left. The youngster cut inside and curled an effort goal bound however Hayden Durose read it well getting across his goal.
Halfway through the first half Nomura found some space on the right. He cross to Cabral whose header bounced narrowly wide from yards.
Just on the half hour mark, Arthur Hugon gave away a needless foul right on the edge of the penalty area directly in front of goal. Coniston’s wall managed to get a head to the goal bound Cameron Morgan free kick.
Coniston launched a swift break led by Cabral whose exquisite turn in the middle of the park, set the platform for a pass to Nomura who in turn slid Tyson Black through on goal. Durose got down well to block the shot in what was a terrific passage of play from the league leaders.
From the resulting corner, Daniel Loe managed to get a header on target with Durose once again getting down well to save.
Just before half time, a White Eagles free kick into the box was not cleared by Coniston. Brendan Fordham laid off to Wille who drove forward and fired a shot that grazed the cross bar on its way over.
A minute after the restart, Coniston mustered a big chance. Nomura outmuscled his opponent out wide before heading towards goal. He squared to Norval who from six yards out hit the underside of cross bar.
The breakthrough came just a few minutes later, some neat combinations in the midfield saw Norval play it wide to Nomura who squared it back to Norval on the edge of the penalty area. He scuffed his shot; however, it fell to James Anagnostopoulos who took a touch and calmly put it beyond Durose.
Just a minute later, substitute Stefan Dimoski sparked the White Eagles as he charged forward from the right. He headed towards goal and unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that Genua just got a hand to deflecting it for a corner.
Just on the hour, Shoya Nakamura linked up with Morgan however the striker fired into the side netting from close range.
On 71 minutes, substitute Christopher Arditti pressed Fordham and forced a turnover. He flew down the left using his speed before cutting back to Norval who looked like he had an open goal however his shot was saved off the line by Fordham who made amends for his error.
Just a couple of minutes later, Dimoski again charged into box and fired a shot that just flew across goal as he was looking to get Park back into the game.
As the game moved into the last ten minutes, it was Dimoski who looked most dangerous for White Eagles. Using his pace and skill, he turned his opponent and squared to Riku Amakawa who forced a great save from Genua.
From the corner kick, the ball somehow made its way across goal and was headed goalbound by Amakawa. Through a combination of a deflection and a one handed save, the ball ricocheted off the cross bar before being cleared away.
Albion Park looked like they were finishing strong. A clever flick over the defence saw Amakawa, who was in the thick of it since coming on, hot a left footed strike that forced a strong save from Genua.
Despite the strong finish, Coniston held firm and extended their lead at the top of the table to four points at the half way point.
