COFFS City United fired six goals past the Camden Haven Redbacks to progress to the fourth round of the Australia Cup (formerly the FFA Cup) last Saturday at the Coffs Harbour Sports and Leisure Park synthetic fields.

Glory Obang Ohojo was the first to react to a deflected corner and instinctively steered the ball over the line to put the Lions ahead after 20 minutes.

Five minutes later Lorenzo Rigoni sprinted down the left wing and lobbed the ball across goal for Martin Kelleher to nod home.

Joel Hampson added a third from a right foot rasping shot from the edge of the penalty box to give the Lions a 3-0 lead at half time.

After the break, the Redbacks started the second half strongly and when Harley Hine beat the Coffs goalkeeper and two other defenders, the travelling Wauchope supporters were given a glimmer of hope.

The Redbacks launched a wave of attacks on the Lions goal but some fine goalkeeping from Jake Mahoney denied the Redbacks on several occasions.

As the rain poured down so did the goals and it was the Coastal Premier League outfit that took control of the game with Azad Qazim, Lorenzo Rigoni, and Blake Townsend adding to the scoreline for a convincing 6-1 victory.

Lions coach Glen Williams was pleased with the win especially given the lack of training caused by the rain.

“Being an unknown opponent we went into the game just concentrating on our own plan.

“Without training that week the guys started quite well and by half time we were 3-0 up.

“The coach’s fear of starting the second half flat was warranted as a defensive error let Camden score an easy goal.

“This kicked our guys into gear once again and we scored another three in that half.

“I was very pleased with our effort under the circumstances of not training at all that week,” said Williams.

Although the grass pitches throughout the region were waterlogged the match was able to go ahead on the synthetic pitches.

“Thank you to the Council for building this facility as we would be two games behind now if they weren’t available,” said Williams.

The Boambee versus Northern Storm fixture was postponed and will be played on Sunday 6 March at 4pm on the Synthetics.

Nambucca Strikers face Iona FC on Saturday 5 March at 4pm and Coffs Coast Tigers face the Taree Wildcats on the same weekend on the synthetic pitches with the day and time yet to be confirmed.

Bellingen FC progressed to the fourth round following a forfeit from their opponents Wingham Warriors.

 

By David WIGLEY