Lake Albert has buried the demons of last year’s Pascoe Cup grand final loss with a commanding 4-1 win over arch-rivals Henwood Park on Sunday.
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The Sharks were dominant from start to finish, establishing a 2-0 halftime lead before crushing a Henwood Park fightback with two more in the second stanza.
Brothers Henri and Fred Gardner were unstoppable at the front for Lake Albert, producing three of their side’s four goals while Nick Anderson also found the back of the net.
The reigning premiers didn’t go down without a fight and stunned the vocal Sharks supporters immediately after halftime, Brad Ingram scoring from a strong build up to bring the margin back to 2-1.
But that would be all the cause for celebration as Lake Albert streaked away to their fourth win in a row.
Sharks skipper Ben Angel was thrilled with his team’s performance and praised the efforts of his midfield against a dangerous Henwood Park side.
“We’re always hopeful for a good performance and I couldn’t be happier with that,” he said.
“Obviously with Henwood Park coming off a loss on Wednesday night (for FFA Cup), we thought they might be a bit fatigued and them missing the big fella Jake (Ploenges) up front also makes a bit of a difference.
“That being said, I think we identified their danger players pretty early on and managed to shut them down through the midfield, so very pleased with that.”
Angel was particularly pleased with the increased turnout to training, making special note of the reserve grade side.
“We had a pretty hard preseason with limited numbers but people are starting to come out of the woodwork now which is good to see,” he said.
”There are a few boys in reserves who are putting some pressure on those first grade boys which is also good to see.
“To be four rounds in and undefeated is great, so very pleased overall.”
Henwood Park coach Ryan McKenzie gave credit to his opposing side but said the scoreline didn’t quite reflect the contest.
“They (Lake Albert) were quite clinical out there,” he said.
“Having said that, I thought we only made a couple of errors but they were able to capitalise on those in the end.”
McKenzie hailed Henwood Park’s second half fightback as proof his side has what it takes to match it with the best.
“The first 20 or so minutes in the second half I thought we played extremely well,” he said.
“It’s just about coming out with a bit more intensity from the get-go.”
