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|  Cavaliers Carve Up Bentleigh By Mark Fisher Green Gully demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they are the goods to win this year's finals series, after a comprehensive victory over the Bentleigh Greens in Sunday's VPL Qualifying Final. Their solid passing game and attacking mindset was appreciated by a reasonable home crowd, who saw the home team score two first half goals when at least three were on offer. Nick Tsaltas opened his finals account by hammering home a gift from Bentleigh goalie Jim Kourtis, who could only parry a stinging effort from Dragi Nastevski in the 10th minute of match time.  Smiles All Round At Green Gully. Green Gully's intensity was causing Bentleigh a few headaches in the middle, and their defense looked particularly rattled in the first half. And so it would only be a matter of time before the Cavaliers extended their lead. Big striker Tony Neceski broke a nine game goalscoring drought in the 38th minute when he blasted home his own rebound after Kourtis looked to have pulled off a brilliant reflex save. Simon Storey could have made it 3-0 after Tsaltas outpaced Robert Murone down the left touchline, but despite the striker delivering the pass to the youngster on a plate, Storey failed to do better than spray his shot across goal from barely ten metres out. The second half saw Gully keep the foot on the pedal, and late substitutions by Bentleigh to bring on some of their untried youth suggest the opposition were already focusing on their elimination final against Preston next weekend. Nick Tsaltas has had a stellar season with Gully, but played down his own efforts shortly after the match. "The main thing is that we won today, which will keep our confidence high for our next game", he said. That game will take place at 3.00pm on Sunday 11 August at Jukes Road, Fawkner, and should be a real cracker.  Dragi Nastevski Dribbles From Half Way To Set Up First Goal. Cautions: Yellow cards to Fak, Fleming, Svigos and Velkovski (Green Gully) and Karapatsos (Bentleigh) Green Gully: Brian, Nastevski, Fak, Douglas, Fleming, Storey, Trupkovic, Vassallo, Velkovski (Svigos), Neceski (Kutlesovski), Tsaltas (Lojanica) Bentleigh: Kourtis, Anderson, Constantinou, Kotsovolos, Drakos S, Murone (Alfa), Gelemanovic, McDonagh (Natsioulis), Breslin, Nilo, Karapatsos (Drakos A) |
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