By Ewen McRae
St Albans Saints had to overcome a plucky Eastern Lions outfit in their National Premier League 2 clash at the weekend, emerging with a crucial win to stay in touch with the top sides.
The Saints travelled to Burwood to take on the Lions, and while they were far from their fluent best, a best on ground performance from goalkeeper Rob Santilli and a goal in each half was enough to seal the 2-0 result.
Saints’ coach Kruni Razov said they had more than their fair share of luck, but he would take the win.
“To be very honest we probably didn’t deserve very much from that game at all,” Razov said.
“It was one of our worst performances all year, but we took our opportunities when they came and we took the three points so that’s a positive.
“We’ve been playing well, and we’ve been getting lots of points, so we went into the game confident, and for whatever reason we just didn’t play our best.”
Possession was shared around early in the game, with both sides getting some chances to score before a corner for the Saints led to the opening goal from Anthony Katiforis.
The Lions’ keeper misjudged the flight of the ball when coming out to meet it, and Katiforis was able to get in front of him and head home the opener in the 30th minute.
The Lions were also reduced to ten men just before half-time when one of their players was handed a red card, but after the break they came out firing and had several good chances to equalise.
If not for Santilli’s good work in the net the Saints may not have taken the points, with the star keeper stopping several promising attacking runs from the home side.
The match was sealed in the 80th minute when a fast break ended with a goal to Rodrigo Covarrubias.
Razov said more consistency was needed if the Saints were to challenge Moreland and Altona at the top of the table.
“A lack of consistency has probably been our downfall,” he said. “We have two or three games where we’re really good, and then we’ll have a slump for no particular reason, so we need to get rid of that to move up the table.”
Elsewhere, Sunshine George Cross fell to a 4-1 loss to Goulburn Valley after conceding three goals in the first 30 minutes of the game.
They were able to hit the scoreboard soon after the hour mark when captain Barry Devlin found the back of the net, but that was as close as they got as Goulburn Valley added a fourth deep into stoppage time to take a big win.
In NPL, Melbourne Knights grabbed their third win in a row with a convincing win over Northcote City on Friday.
The Knights scored in the 13th, 32nd, 56th and 83rd minute, and let through just one goal themselves as they took a 4-1 win.
