The home team was forced to showcase its powers of recovery after falling behind to a stunning seventeenth minute opener to Josip Jadric. The winger struck a powerful shot that flew into the Cooma net leaving the home goalkeeper helpless by the ferocity of the strike. That solitary goal proved to be the only one of the first half but any thoughts that the visitors might be back to winning ways after their home loss to Canberra Olympic seven days ago was brought crashing back to earth when Iain Elliott fired a rasping drive into the net to level the match at 1-1 thirteen minutes into the second half.
The champions regained the initiative barely six minutes later though when Ian Graham was on hand to notch his sixth league goal of the season and seemingly restore normality. However the Tigers roared again and Serdan Bircan bravely hurtled into a 50-50 with Ben Klug in the Canberra FC goal getting to the ball first to make the score 2-2 in the 72nd minute. And, only two minutes later the home team were in front. Elliott swung over a delicious cross and Alex Castro, once of Canberra FC, connected to power a diving header into the net and secure a home win.
The defeat allowed Canberra FC’s nearest title rivals Canberra Olympic to move five points clear at the top of the table after they proved too strong for Monaro Panthers in a one-sided contest at O’Connor Enclosed winning 4-0. After an unfortunate own goal gave Olympic the lead early on, James McLachlan getting the unlucky final touch to a defensive melee, the home team was always in control of the outcome. After the break Mohsen Ravanparsa in the 66th minute and Robbie Shroder, seven minutes later, scored their eighth goals of the season to secure the win before Milan Popovich troubled the scorers for the first time this season by rounding off the scoring nine minutes from the final whistle.
Belconnen United got back to winning ways themselves on Sunday afternoon as they proved to be more ruthless than Tuggeranong United as they disposed of their plucky visitors to McKellar Park by four goals to nil. Dustin Wells proved once again to be the king of the dead-ball netting a hat-trick of set-piece efforts including a brace of penalties in the first half. Danny Macor had the Blue Devils in front in only the 21st minute with his seventh goal of the season before Tuggeranong goalkeeper Alex Connell was adjudged to have fouled a Belconnen attacker in the penalty area. Wells made no mistake from the spot-kick and repeated the feat in the 34th minute after a penalty was again awarded, this time for handball. In the second half Tuggeranong was given a penalty of their own but skipper Tim Ireson saw his shot saved by Rowan Sheppard and Wells added the coup de grace for the home team two minutes from time with a belting free-kick from distance to register his treble and his 24th goal of the season.
At Hawker Football Centre on Saturday evening Canberra City and Woden Valley played out a goalless draw with chances few and far between. That’s not to say there weren’t any with Alex Oloriegbe missing the best opportunity for the visitors firstly firing wide when through one-on-one early on and secondly following a Ben Pagett cross whilst Nikola Taneski tested the reflexes of the Woden shot-stopper Jack Pettit, who also did well to save a well-struck free-kick from Misko Naumoski. City looked for all the world as if they had won the match when a shot was goal bound with Pettit beaten however Hector Alamos saved the day with a magnificent stooping clearance off the goal line. A draw however was a fair result at the end of the day.


ACT Results
Canberra City 0 Woden Valley 0

Cooma Tigers 3 (Iain Elliott 58’, Serdan Bircan 72’, Alex Castro 74’) Canberra FC 2 (Josip Jadric 17’, Ian Graham 64’)

Canberra Olympic 4 (James McLachlan (own goal) 10’, Mohsen Ravanparsa 66’, Robbie Shroder 73’, Milan Popovich 81’) Monaro Panthers 0

Belconnen United 4 (Danny Macor 21’, Dustin Wells 27’ (pen), 30’ (pen), 88’) Tuggeranong United 0

ACT Standings          P    W   D   L  For  Ag   GD  Pts
1 Canberra Olympic    13   10   2   1   49   15   +34   32
2 Canberra FC            11    9   0   2   54   15   +39   27
4 Belconnen United     13    7   2   4   47   27   +20   23
3 Canberra City          13    6   3   4   43   18   +25   21
5 Woden Valley          12    4   4   4   41   22   +19   16
6 Cooma Tigers          12    5   1   6   26   35    -9   16
7 Monaro Panthers     13    3   3   7   28   29    -1   12
8 Tuggeranong Utd    13    3   3   7   24   34    -10  12
9 Goulburn Strikers    12    0   0   12  5   121  -116   0


Next Round
Goulburn Strikers v Canberra FC     
Cookbundoon
3:00 PM Sat 6/Aug           

Canberra City v Cooma SC           
Hawker Football Centre 3:00 PM Sun 7/Aug           
Woden Valley v Monaro           
Woden Park Enclosed
3:00 PM Sun 7/Aug           

Belconnen United v Canberra Olympic      
McKellar Park
4:00 PM Sun 7/Aug           

BYE v TUFC


Rock Premier Pathway League
Canberra City 0 Woden Valley 4
ACTAS 6 Goulburn Strikers 0
Cooma Tigers 1 Canberra FC 0
Canberra Olympic 1 Monaro Panthers 2
Belconnen United 2 Tuggeranong United 0

Rock Premier League under-18
Canberra City 2 Woden Valley 4
Cooma Tigers 2 Canberra FC 5
Canberra Olympic 5 Monaro Panthers 0
Belconnen United 3 Tuggeranong United 1

Rock Premier League under-16
Canberra City 0 Woden Valley 2
ACTAS 0 Goulburn Strikers 3
Cooma Tigers 0 Canberra FC 2
Canberra Olympic 7 Monaro Panthers 2
Belconnen United 2 Tuggeranong United 0