The Fire Under 18 Boys have secured a place in the Macron Cup Final against Brisbane City, after defeating Maroochydore FC 6-0 in the third round of the competition at A.J. Kelly Park on Sunday.
Cameron Nairn scored a hat-trick while Andre Jancevski, Sean de Chastel and Jordan Lloyd added to the Fire’s haul.
The Fire took charge of the game from the starting whistle, playing at a higher intensity than Maroochydore.
Just three minutes in Luke Devitt split Maroochydore’s defence and passed to Cameron Nairn who finished calmly to give Fire a goal advantage.
The Fire defence and midfield were a little disorganised from this point but settled after the first 20 minutes, allowing Fire to create some more goal scoring opportunities.
Cameron Nairn was looking dangerous in front of goal while Liam Culpitt, Jordan Vieira and goal keeper Aaron Smith were in good form, as was Sean de Chastel when he was subbed on at 20 minutes.
Fire was awarded a free-kick on the 36th minute which Vieira took and passed to Devitt, who passed to de Chastel for Nairn to finish and take the score to 2-0 in Fire’s favour.
Just before half time Fire extended the lead as Andre Jancevski latched onto a through-ball down the left to drive his shot past the advancing keeper.
Fire returned with a much stronger defensive effort after a change of formation to 3:5:2. Izaac Watson was impressive in defence while Jordan Irwin created problems at left wing back, reducing passing options for Maroochydore by coming inside to receive the ball.
On the 55th minute a Fuller corner was headed on by Kelton Scriggins for de Chastel to finish from inside the six-yard box.
The Fire midfield continued to create space and allow for more consistent attacking passing, and plenty of goal-scoring opportunities for Lloyd, Jancevski and Kobe Fuller who put in good work up front.
On the 77th minute Irwin passed to Nairn to calmly finish and wrap up his hat –trick, and a great short through-pass from de Chastel to Lloyd in the 90th minute allowed Lloyd to beat the keeper with a strong shot to the far post from inside the penalty box to bring the final score to 6-0.
The Fire Under 18 Boys will next take on Brisbane City in the Final on Sunday, February 8 at 3:00pm at A.J. Kelly park.
