On another day Port Saints could have claimed all three points from Ayrshire Park.
Instead they had to lick their wounds as Boambee continued their undefeated start to the Coastal Premier League with a hard-fought 3-2 win on Saturday.
Brady Parker opened the scoring in the first half with what could be goal of the year before Luke France added a brace for the hosts.
Logan Palmer and Grant Brown found the back of the net for Saints in an entertaining, free-flowing fixture that lived up to its billing as match of the round.
Saints coach John Goodman was left to lament a lack of polish in the front third.
“At the crucial moment our decision-making let us down,” he said.
“It’s not the quality of the player, it’s not the effort … it’s the decision-making during the last pass or two.
“We didn’t have a lack of chances of trying … they got three, we got two and on another day it could have been 3-2 the other way quite easily.”
It was always a possibility that goals would be scored due to the style of play that both coaches try to instil in their teams.
And so it proved.
“You’ve got to expect goals to go past you if you play attacking football and they played very similar to us which made for an open game which was great for the neutral,” Goodman said.
Saints will take plenty of positives out of their ability to match it with the best side in the competition, but Goodman knows they must convert it into competition points.
“We’re there and thereabouts, but if we don’t get points we won’t be there … we have to get points,” he said.
“We’re down as far as we have to be, but we want to stay with the frontrunners and out of the four games United and Boambee beat us and they’re one and two so that’s fair.”
Bombers gaffer Adrian Pickup conceded his side again didn’t put together a full 90-minute performance although he was impressed with his defence.
“The game see-sawed both ways; the keepers weren’t busy but they had a couple of things to do,” he said.
“There were a lot of corners and both sides defended well.”
Boambee managed to keep Saints’ marksman Roan Whiteman quiet.
“We knew what Roan could do and I’m not sure if he had a shot on goal,” Pickup said.
“We haven’t hit 90 minutes of football yet, but defensively we were much better – the same as Saints.”
In other clashes, Port United kept the pressure on Boambee at the top with a 2-0 win over Macleay Valley at Dixie Park while Coffs United put five goals unanswered past Kempsey Saints.
Sawtell continued Taree’s tough start to the season with a 6-2 victory.
Coffs Coast and Northern Storm had to postpone their fixture due to the weather.
Coastal Football Leagues 