After a convincing win against second placed Adelaide Olympic a week prior, State League leaders West Adelaide Hellas welcomed Adelaide Hills to Kingston Gardens for the round 17 clash.
Over the past few years, an intense rivalry has built between the two clubs, with often a goal separating the two competing outfits. Hellas went into the match with two notable omissions, namely Ricardo Da Silva (injury) and also Kosta Mantis (suspension), forcing coach Ross Aloisi to reshuffle the starting eleven.
West Adelaide began the match with Matthew Kemp in the middle controlling the play early on. His partners in the middle, Tom Guttormsen and Dimi Toumazos were also active and kept the Hawks at bay. In an attempt to block captain Paul Pezos from his usual stellar distribution, the Hawks effectively blocked any chance for him to have time on the ball, however openly allowed fellow centre back Yianni Sarris to push it forward.
The first chance of the day fell to inform striker Harry Skoumbros, who sprayed it well over the bar in a frustrating first half. From there Hellas continued to blaze away, however to no avail on the scoreboard and as the referee blew the whistle to send both teams to the rooms for half time, it was locked at nil all.
Right from the point of kick off in the second half, the Adelaide Hills continued to sit deep in their own half, and through renewed optimism, attempted to catch West Adelaide on the counter attack in a bid to inflict Hellas’ first defeat for the season.
After some spectacular saves from the Hawks’ custodian, Aloisi made changes from his bench and introduced the likes of Spero Koulianos, Jonathan Salmeron and Anthony Trimboli, in an attempt to break the deadlock and score the first goal. Vice captain Michael Alexandrou was menacing down the left hand side, and through there, Koulianos latched onto a wayward corner and managed to cutback a pass towards the centre of the goal.
Young midfielder Dimi Toumazos was on hand to strike the ball towards goal and beat the Hills keeper in the 91st minute, to give Hellas an unassailable one goal lead deep towards injury time. The victory meant that Hellas now sit eleven points clear at the top of the table with thirteen games remaining in the 2013 season.
Alexandrou was adjudged best on ground, closely followed by Paul Pezos, and the ever consistent Eli Vlassis.
