A Win On The Road

24th June - Boronia 1-4 Doncaster Rovers

Goals: Trevor Bird (2), Karl Pimlott, Ben Vernes

HV Jones Reserve in Ferntree Gully hosted the Round 8 clash between Boronia and Doncaster Rovers on a cold but sunny June winter afternoon. Rovers started with Trevor Bird and Ashley Stevenson up front, a midfield of Ian Branch, Karl Pimlott, Ben Vernes and Marc Graziani, in defence were Jarryd Pickard, Domenic Curulli, Michael Kil and Ali Sajadi. With Adam Bove suffering an indoor football injury, Gareth Tanner started in goal while the team awaited stand-in keeper Matthew Gandolfo from the Under 15's to arrive.

It didn't take long for Rovers to make their mark. After 10 minutes, Karl Pimlott found Trevor Bird with a sweetly-timed through pass and he calmly slotted the ball under the advancing Boronia keeper. 5 minutes later, Karl Pimlott found the net himself, calmly beating a defender before clipping the ball inside the far post from 6 yards. Rovers had further chances to score with Ian Branch volleying over from long range and Gareth Tanner forcing a fine save before Trevor Bird added his second, and Rovers third, on 30 minutes with another cool finish. When the half-time whistle sounded, Rovers held a well-deserved 3-0 lead.

A second half reshuffle introduced Kenneth Ng on the left and Jeffrey Xu up front and the two combined early in the second half and almost breached the Boronia defence. Rovers by now were playing some delightful one-touch football and some sweeping moves deserved better reward. It was against the run of play when Boronia got back into the game with a close range finish from a corner after their striker got away from his marker and beat keeper Matthew Gandolfo to the ball.

Rovers weren't to be denied however, and after near misses from Kenneth Ng and Michael Kil, were rewarded on 70 minutes when the Boronia keeper couldn't hold onto a stinging drive from Ben Vernes giving Rovers their fourth goal. The game finished shortly after with a final scoreline of Boronia 1-4 Rovers.