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MAGIC HOLD TOP SPOT

Magic Utd 3 (Ozduzenciler 2, Olley)

Mudgeeraba 1 (Boelen)

HT 2:0

SURPRISE leaders of the Buffalo Sports Premier League, Magic United, held onto top spot with a solid 3-1 victory over Marc Boelen’s Mudgeeraba to register their fourth win in five games.

Magic led 2-0 at the break courtesy of a quick-fire double from Umut Ozduzenciler that left Mudgeeraba stunned and searching for a way back into the match. Their cause wasn’t helped by the second half dismissal of two players leaving the visitors with just nine men and many others with yellow cards to their name.

The loss left the Mudgeeraba coach ruing his side’s inability to put away their goalscoring opportunities with his troops already dismayed by the time the whistle blew to end the first 45 minutes.

“We started well but couldn’t convert our chances; then after a couple of mistakes we found ourselves 2-0 down,” Boelen reflected.

“The players were shocked and disappointed at half time and couldn’t understand how we were two goals down.

“It’s disappointing; that’s our third loss of the season. I thought we were the better side but we’ve come away with nothing again.”

Ozduzenciler’s first goal for Magic took a deflection on the way to the net but he needed no assistance with his second in the 25^th minute.

Luke McPherson’s stinging free-kick was palmed out by the Mudgeeraba goalkeeper and Ozduzenciler was on hand to drill home the rebound and give his team two goal cushion.

Matt Olley put the result beyond doubt after 60 minutes when he stripped the offside trap and won the one on one battle with the Mudgeeraba ‘keeper to settle the contest.

As the game wound down but the tempers flared, Magic ‘keeper Luke Muir was left disorientated after a collision with a Mudgeeraba attacker and while he was gathering his senses the visitors plundered a consolation goal through Jamie Boelen’s 18-metre volley. 

Muir was soon substituted but his absence had no bearing on the result with Magic cruising to victory and coach Brett Budwee beaming about his side’s terrific start to the campaign.

“I’m pleased that we kept our momentum going especially against teams that you want to be beating. We have the Knights, Burleigh and Palm Beach over the next four weeks and we needed a good run into those games,” he said.

“We know that we can continue to improve and if we can do that we might be able to get some good results against the top teams.

“Once we settled into the game we looked good and the two goals came in quick succession for us. We had our tails up and forced them to chase the game and at half time we were confident that we weren’t going to lose the match.” 

Saturday night’s other fixture between Coomera and Broadbeach was abandoned due to floodlight failure.