Nicholas James Lawyers Match Report: Pollifrone Off the Bench, Four in a Row at Cross Keys
A huge thanks to Nicholas James Lawyers for presenting this weekend’s match report.
A run is not a run until something tries to break it. Three wins on the bounce had the dressing room walking taller than it had all season, but Friday night at Cross Keys served up the kind of test that decides whether momentum is real or rented. Eastern Lions equalised with seventeen minutes left, the ground went quiet, and the question was sitting there for everyone to see.
The answer arrived eleven minutes later, and it came off the bench.
Christian Pollifrone had been on the field for less than ten minutes when he slid the winner past the visiting goalkeeper on 84 minutes. Two-one. Friday night at Cross Keys. Four wins in a row.
The opener had Jordan Adeyemi’s name on it, because of course it did. The leading scorer’s run of form continues to define this team’s season, and his strike on 37 minutes gave the Royals the lead they took into the break. One-nil at half-time, the home side controlling the rhythm of the match, doing the things Mick Ferrante has been demanding for weeks: keeping shape, defending the box, picking the right moments to commit numbers forward.
Eastern Lions had other ideas after the break. Eyob Zewdie levelled on 73 minutes, with a sumptuous free-kick into the top corner that briefly threatened to ruin the Royals’ evening.
With the game in the balance, Ferrante chose to swing. Off came Phil Riccobene and Josh Markovski, on came Lucas Alessi and Pollifrone, and the bench earned its keep. Alessi picked up a yellow card before the night was done. Pollifrone won the match.
The detail that matters here is what the result means for where this team sits in May. Five wins, no draws, five losses, eighteen points after eleven rounds. Fifth on the table. The top four sit in front at twenty-eight, twenty-one, twenty, and twenty. Two points off Box Hill United Pythagoras and Goulburn Valley Suns. Two points off the conversation that decides who plays finals football and who watches it.
Around the rest of the grounds, Malvern City rolled on with a 4-1 win over Springvale White Eagles, Bayside Argonauts dropped points in a draw with Nunawading City, and Box Hill United Pythagoras beat Moreland City 3-1. The top four did not pull away. The Royals closed the gap.
The bench changed the game. The senior pros, with Vince Lia anchoring the midfield with the calm of someone who has been here before, did not get rattled when the equaliser arrived.
Four wins from four. The run is real, and the table is starting to notice.
Keilor Park away on Friday in Round 12.