Yoogali SC hold on against Brindabella Blues in NPL2

Both sides had a couple of chances early on before Yoogali started to get on top but were missing the final execution, and a couple of chances cleared off the line.

The home side was able to take the lead as they were able to recycle the ball and across from Calvin Roddie found Mason Donadel, who placed his volley home.

It didn't take long for Yoogali to get their second, with Joey Preece working hard on the byline before passing back to Roche, who tucked the ball home two minutes after the first while Roddie provided for Roche to score his second of the afternoon.

Yoogali keeper Michael De Paoli was able to turn away a shot from outside the box and then a penalty kick just before halftime to see the home side holding a 3-0 lead at the break.

Roche completed his hat-trick four minutes into the second half with a header at the far post, and it looked like Yoogali would be able to take a confidence-building win ahead of the FFA Cup qualifying semi-final against Tigers.

Brindabella had other ideas with three goals in the space of 10 minutes, pulling the game back to a one-goal margin before Roche scored his fourth after a good ball from Preece allowed Roche to get in behind the defence and chip the keeper.

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There would be one last twist in the tale with four minutes to go as Brindabella scored their fourth, but Yoogali were able to hold on to take a 5-4 win.

After the nail-biting finish, coach Luke Santolin felt the game ended up being a lot more tense than it needed to be.

"It is really hard to put my finger on what happened," he said.

"I think we just took our eyes off the ball for a bit, and I made a couple of changes with one eye on Wednesday, and we nearly got our pocket picked.

"We need to work on our game management from here on in."

Looking ahead to clash with Tigers on Wednesday, Santolin admitted it would have been nice to head in with a big win but still has full confidence in his side's ability.

" It has probably changed the mood in the change room, nearly losing the result, but at the same time, I think that we need to be super aware of the challenge ahead of us," he said.

" I don't think we are going to go into Wednesday cocky, but if we play to our potential, we can be confident that we can do something.

"I know there are proud players, and they won't stay down for too long."

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