It might be too early to tell, but Lake Albert’s 6-0 victory over Leeton marks another ominious step towards an undefeated minor premiership and casts shadows over this season’s Pascoe Cup finals. 

You read correctly, 6-0 is not a misprint, and neither is the Sharks’ form on paper.

Lake Albert have now slotted 45 goals in 14 games whilst conceding just nine of their own, six of them coming in a 90-minute frenzy at Leeton’s expense. 

Sunday afternoon’s match at Rawlings Park began as anticipated; tough tackling, bold attacking plays, Anthony Triflogi causing mayhem up one end while Fred and Henri Gardner plagued the other.

The latter stood tallest, literally, in the 13^th minute to open the scoring with a fine header before Fred added his own name to the scoresheet in the 30^th minute.

Leeton’s defence remained steely nonetheless with goalkeeper Jarrod Sillis leading the way, pulling off a pair of sensational saves and putting his body on the line.

Lake Albert went into half time holding a clear 2-0 advantage, but no one was writing the visitors off and a comeback was possible.

That was until the second half whistle kicked off a 45-minute nightmare for Leeton.

The collapse began after a scuffle broke out between the two sides early in the half and Leeton soon found themselves on the wrong end of the yellow card count.

Frustrations then threatened to boil over when Nick Anderson found the net, making the most of a deflection to stretch the Sharks’ lead to 3-0 in the 56^th minute.

Adam Raso and Nick Trifogli did their best to spark something for the visitors, but it was too little too late as the Lake Albert juggernaut started picking up speed.

Kane Baumer’s header in the 76^th minute put the result beyond doubt before late goals to Chris Durman and Sam Robbins added insult to injury.

Lake Albert coach Mitch Tinnock couldn’t hide his surprise at the full time whistle.

“We were confident heading into the game, but we certainly didn’t think we’d win by that much,” Tinnock said.

“Leeton have been pretty good this year … but it looked like they just snapped a bit out there.”

Ben Matthews, Jamie Rankin, Kane Baumer and Blake Smith were among the Sharks’ best while goalkeeper Hayden Callander did his part at the rear. 

“It’s hard to single people out after a game like that,” Tinnock said.

“When you put in a performance like that, it means that everyone is putting in and doing their job well.”

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