The Young Roar closed out their home season in the Foxtel National Youth League with an impressive 6-0 win over the FFA Centre of Excellence at Perry Park today.
The emphatic victory continued a great weekend for the club following Friday night’s Hyundai A-League 2-0 win over Central Coast and added to the growing excitement ahead of Friday night’s blockbuster Suncorp Stadium showdown with Melbourne Victory.
While the hero of the Young Roar’s win today was Devante Clut  – he scored two minutes into the game, again in the 58th minute and was desperately unlucky not to get his hat-trick three minutes from time – it was talented midfielder George Lambadaridis who engineered the victory.
Lambadaridis only played the first 45 minutes as he continues his comeback from knee surgery that kept him on the sideline for month, but his class was evident as he guided the Young Roar to a 3-0 lead at the break.
Lambadaridis was dominant in midfield and not only created numerous chances for his teammates but found the net himself with a powerful left foot shot in the 43rd minute and went close on several other earlier attempts.
Clut got the home side off to the perfect start with his clinical finish from the edge of the box before many of his opponents had even raised a sweat.
Centre of Excellence countered but the Young Roar weathered a period of intense defence before taking control.
In the 21st minute Young Roar winger Shelford Dais pounced on a poor clearance from the CoE defence and slipped a sharp pass to surging left fullback Matthew Schmidt who weaved into the box and fired an unstoppable shot into the net.
Eight minutes later Clut played a clever chip over the defence to Abrahim Yango who easily evaded CoE keeper Brandon Osipov but the Young Roar striker ran out of space on the right before he could get his shot across into the empty goal.
It took until the 40th minute for the visitors to get their first shot on goal.
While a second-half rout looked to be in the making, the departure of Lambadaridis – who was substituted as planned under his comeback program – and a more spirited effort from the visitors saw a more even contest for the first 15 minutes of the second half.
But Clut drove another unstoppable shot into the net from inside the box in the 58th minute to make it 4-0 for Young Roar and from then on it was one-way traffic.
Substitute Nic D’Agostino was unlucky when his shot was blocked from close range in the 65th minute but there was no stopping fellow sub Patrick Theodore 10 minutes later.
He fired a blistering shot from wide on the left that CoE keeper Osipov got a hand to but could only parry it into the roof of the net.
Two minutes later, Clut ran onto a through ball and rounded Osipov to have his hat-trick begging. But as CoE defenders dived back, Clut’s shot under pressure hit the upright and ricocheted across the goal where D’Agostino had the easiest of tap ins.
The Young Roar now have two away matches – against Western Sydney Wanderers and Perth Glory – to finish their season.
FOXTEL National Youth League at Perry Park
Young Roar 6 (Clut 2′, 58′; Schmidt 21′, Lambadaridis 43′, Theodore 85′, D’Agostino 87)
FFA Centre of Excellence 0
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