Image: Smile for Peter
Oakleigh Cannons hosted Bentleigh Greens while Green Gully travelled to Pascoe Vale as all sides looked to strengthen their top six credentials, with all eventually cancelling each other out, settling for a 1-1 draw on Friday night football. It gives the impetus for the likes of Avondale, South, Heidelberg and Hume to make inroads in the battle for the premiership and finals places.
***
At Jack Edwards Reserve, Bentleigh went in without three of their usual centre-backs, with Troy Ruthven and Charlie Fry taking centre stage and Nick Glavan on the left and Ben Litfin on the right.
Despite their forced changes the Greens were on top early, forcing John Honos into two massive saves to preserve the deadlock.
A backheel from Matt Thurtell on the byline to Keanu Moore near the penalty spot required the custodian to produce a close-range block.
A sliced clearance then had the ball fall at the feet of Kieran Dover, who was also denied by the goalkeeper from near point blank range.
Yet it were the hosts who took the lead on the stroke of half time when a ball won in midfield landed to Giuseppe Marafioti, who played through Goran Zoric on goal. The winger made no mistake to net for the third time in four games and continue his rich vein of form.
In the second half the lead was nearly doubled when a corner to Marafioti saw his header crash against the woodwork before being eventually cleared away.
Zoric also almost added to his tally from the edge of the area but was denied by Ryan Scott.
At the other end, Lambros Honos cut back to Andy Brennan, who became another Greens player to be thwarted by Honos.
Brennan was involved in the equaliser however as it was his cross that found Thurtell, who finished expertly to finally get the better of Oakleigh’s shot-stopper.
Bentleigh finished the stronger on the night, with one of the last chances seeing John deny Lambros in a battle between the two Honos brothers of which neither could be separated.
***
At CB Smith Reserve, Green Gully came the closest to opening the scoring when a Jay Davies cross found Nick Krousoratis at the back post for a shot that hit the woodwork.
Davey van ‘t Schip has been Pascoe Vale’s most dangerous player throughout the campaign and looked to give his side the lead but his effort was saved by Rani Dowisha.
Luka Prelevic had also been in decent form for his club but had a shot flash wide as neither side could wrestle the ascendancy in the first hour or so of the clash.
The opener came via some expert interplay between Joseph Youssef and van ‘t Schip, with the former’s pinpoint cross to Luca Santilli leading to a headed goal and the lead for the hosts.
Van ‘t Schip again was proving successful in evading his markers and teed up Adrian Talarico, whose
close range shot and almost certain sealer was saved incredibly by Dowisha.
Gully surged late in the contest in their attempts to square the ledger as a Jeremy Walker cross was volleyed towards goal by Wade Dekker but was denied by Alex Pavlidis.
It all happened in extra time as a Jonathan Bounas header from a corner was cleared off the line, before one of the last actions of the contest saw a free-kick partially cleared to Alex Caniglia on the edge of the area, who curled in a trademark strike past the outstretched arms of Alex Pavlidis for a dramatic equaliser and the share of the points.
The late result makes it six games winless now for Paco who have been dragged into the mid-table battle, while two draws on the trot for Gully mean they are equal at the top for now with Avondale, though the latter has two games in hand.