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Soccer: UWA grabs win from ladder leaders

Tristan TaylorWestern Suburbs Weekly

Tristan Taylor had the first chance of the game, but he was unable to keep his effort down after a great delivery into the box from Alex Kretowicz.

UWA took the lead after a quarter of an hour courtesy of a Bryce Conway header from Robbie Black’s corner at the near post and glanced his effort past the keeper to give his team a one-goal lead.

The away side doubled their lead five minutes later thanks to an outstanding long-range effort from Thomas Moroney.

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UWA switched the play quickly down the right hand side before Taylor played the ball back to Moroney, who sat 25 yards out from goal. The midfielder was given far too much space and made Mandurah pay, rifling his stunning effort into the top left hand corner.

Returning vice-captains Marc Zagami and Conor Devlin were dictating play superbly from the middle of the park and making life difficult for Mandurah going forward.

Mandurah were struggling to keep up with UWA’s vibrant style of play and were another goal down when Conway added his second.

Mandurah’s Jordan Rhodes stepped up to take the spot kick and calmly slotted it home to pull one back for the home side.

Mandurah knew they had to lift in the second half if they were to come out of the match with anything and through the leadership of Rhodes and Andy Brown they were able to mount pressure on the UWA defence.

Eventually Mandurah were able to peg one back through the head of Oriol Fernandez as he was free in the box and made no mistake after a brilliant delivery from the right flank.

Mandurah pressed numbers forward in search of an equaliser but it left them exposed at the back.

Mandurah’s right back was careless in position and Kretowicz was able to steal the ball before weaving through the defence and squaring it to Andrew Xydas, who steered it home from the edge of the area to make it 4-2.

UWA head coach Michael Jansen said he was proud of his young side and it was a nice reward for weeks of hard work at training.

“It makes me proud to see how this young team executes the advice on the park,” he said.

“Each player from one to 16 is committed and willing to perform like we want to play.”