Griffith City FC 0

GRIFFITH City FC's State Cup dream was snuffed out in a clinical 15 minutes by Gwawley Bay, with the devastating period putting an end to the new club's dream of lifting the prestigious title at Valentine Sports Park yesterday.

The joint-venture club more than competed with the Sutherland-base side in the first-half, but clinical finishing in front of goal handed the Gladiators the state-wide knockout title.

Griffith City coach Ross Panebianco was disappointed at coming-up short, but in the same breath took nothing away from his opponent's performance.

"It was a game of two halves, in the first half we competed and we had a couple of opportunities but they probably weren't what we thought they were," Panebianco said. "Come half-time they came out firing after the beak and they scored all of their goals basically back-to-back and that just killed us."

The first goal was a spectacular one, with the Gladiators scoring it from more than 25 yards out, with the low hard shot beating City goalkeeper Derek Noffke at the near-post.

The second and third goals as part of Gwawley Bay's shock-and-Nick’s return from a calf strain, while not a long one on Saturday night, is a vital one for Griffith, with the guard giving the side much better balance allowing Mick Duncan to return to more dynamic role as part of the backcourt rotation.

Wagga continued to hand the Demons too many opportunities to pull away, with several turnovers quickly travelling back down the court and being converted into points, meaning the game was in Griffith’s back pocket from half-time. Cullen used the third quarter as a chance to give his bench players some court time, with the Demons’ leader praising his substitutes for their attitude.

“We let the lead squander a little bit in the second-half, we had a completely different five and the lead went from about 20 down to about 12, but we regrouped and we rounded out the game,” he said.

“But the other aspect I was really happy about, late in the fourth quarter the bench were helping us out on defence in terms of saying ‘Arch watch out for that guy in the corner’ and to have that coming from them meant a lot, their attitude all game was second-to-none.”

However, souring the win is the booking of Steve McCanna who was cited after getting involved with a shoving match with a Wagga player.

The matter is expected to be heard this week ahead of Griffith’s final regular season game against Illawarra, with the Demons camp expected the forward to be rubbed out for at least one game.