THE loss of concentration for two fleeting moments of the game cost the Dunsborough Towners dearly as they succumbed to a 4-1 defeat against league leaders Dalyellup in a Premier League encounter in Dalyellup on Sunday.
It was a result that did not reflect the pattern of play in which the Towners dominated for long periods, especially in the second-half.
The good news before the game was the return of captain and central defender Stuart Turner who earned the Eagle Bay Brewery man of the match award.
This advantage was undermined by the loss of influential midfielder and sometime goalkeeper Chris Blackburn with cracked ribs.
The goalkeeping duties fell to newcomer Mitch Tucker who provided a strong display capped off by saving a penalty in the 39th minute.
But he couldn’t prevent the opening goal in the ninth minute from a shot that cannoned off the right post, ran across the goalmouth for Ben Kirk to score inside the near post from an acute angle.
One minute later the Towners almost equalised when Turner hit the cross bar with a powerful header from a corner.
Twenty minutes later, however they were level pegging with Tim Pidgeon keeping up his goal a game pattern with a powerful ground shot inside the far post.
From the start of the second half Dunsborough grabbed the initiative but were unable to break down the Dalyellup defence even when Turner moved into attack.
The game was lost in the space on 10 minutes with the Towners’ defence pressing forward allowed Dalyellup’s speedy Josh Atherton to race through and score easy goals in the in the 53rd and 62nd minutes.
It mattered little in extra time when an unmarked Terrence Mukaka was free to tap into an empty net.
There was some consolation for Towners in a 1-1 draw with Dalyellup with Matt Brown scoring for Dunsborough in the 10th minute only for Ben Merchant’s to equalise in the 57th minute.
Both sides were guilty of wasting easy chances to secure victory, though Dunsborough would have been happy with the point having been reduced to 10 men in the 80th minute.
The Dunsborough women won their first match of the season with a 2-0 victory over Geographe Bay in a revised Women’s competition.
The Dunsborough Dry Cleaning player of the match was Sofie Pavjec, who was outstanding as a goalkeeper in the first half and then was moved into attack to score both goals.
