Canberra United 1-0 Wellington Phoenix
by Ryan Miller-Woods (24/3/24)
Above: Canberra United (green) tussle for possession against Wellington Phoenix today. Photo: Canberra United.
Canberra United moved them off the bottom of the ladder and kept their first clean sheet of the season as they defeated Wellington Phoenix at McKellar Park today.
It was a fairly even opening with Wellington having the first opportunity from a free kick in the 12th minute as Michaela Foster floated the ball into the box which was just a little too far ahead of Emma Main to have made contact with it.
Ten minutes later, Canberra came close to scoring themselves as Michelle Heyman on the edge of the box found Vesna Milivojevic whose first-time shot towards goal took a deflection on the way through and just went wide for a corner.
Shortly afterwards, the visitors once again almost found the back of the net via a great pass by Macey Fraser which the ball went into the path of Main as she then floated a cross into the box for Mariana Speckmaier in the centre who headed wide.
It would be Canberra who had arguably the best chance of the half as Heyman headed the ball into the path of Christopherson who misdirected a pass to Nix’s Hailey Davidson only for Ruby Nathan to regain possession outside the box to curl a shot just wide.
The visitors had the first opportunity of the second period ten minutes in as Fraser provided a short pass to Speckmaier who then laid the ball off for Main to bypass the Canberra defence but her shot was blocked by United’s returning Young Matildas goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln.
Just after the hour mark, Main was involved again for Wellington after receiving possession from Alyssa Whinham. Main put in a great cross into the box for Isabel Cox but a combination of not getting enough contact on the ball with her attempt, and great goalkeeping by Lincoln denied the visitors.
With 12 minutes remaining, Milivojevic played a long ball from her own half into the path of Flannery down the left flank to float a cross into the box for Heyman who rose above Nix’s Mikayla Foster in the centre of the box to firmly head the ball past the reach of Rylee Foster for her 15th goal of the season to seal all three points for Canberra United.
Teams: CANBERRA UNITED (4-1-4-1): Lincoln, Bertolissio, Ilijoski, Clough, Grove, Clark, Christopherson, Milivojevic, Nathan, Flannery, Heyman. Substitutes: Majstorovic, McKenzie, Murray, Jackson, Whittall.
Scorer: Heyman 78’.
WELLINGTON PHOENIX(3-2-4-1): R. Foster, M. Foster, Barry, Jaber, Brazendale Davidson, Breslin, Main, Fraser, Cox, Speckmaier. Substitutes: Danieli, McMeeken, Whinham, Robertson, Ingham.
Referee: Isabella Mossin.
Attendance: 1,341.
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