Albury United stayed within reach of Wangaratta for the senior men's league title with a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Boomers at Glen Park on Sunday.
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However, the win came at a cost for both sides with an injury to United centre back Harris Lee and a red card to Boomers' coach Andrew Grove major talking points.
Lee sustained his second concussion of the season and is in doubt for next weekend's crunch clash against leaders Wangaratta.
A long free kick from Gauthier Robin was headed home by Lee to give the Greens a 2-1 lead after 13 minutes, but he was accidentally collected by Boomers' goalkeeper Matt Mildren.
Lee didn't play any further part and left the ground by ambulance shortly after.
Meanwhile, Grove is set to miss multiple weeks after a red card reportedly for dissent in the final minute.
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Boomers raced out of the blocks when Grove slipped in behind the defence and finished in the second minute, but it was all United from then on in the first half.
Michael Brownsea equalised with a classy one-touch finish four minutes later.
Lee's header made it 2-1 after 13 and the Greens went 3-1 up in the 24th minute when Brownsea beat two defenders and Mildren to find the back of the net again.
Boomers responded after the break, but were frequently denied by United goalkeeper Josh Fluss.
Jason Colombera got one back for Boomers inside the final minutes, but the Greens held firm to take the three points.
"We had our opportunities all day, but credit to both keepers, (Josh) Fluss and Matty (Mildren) were superb," United coach Steve McLennan said.
"We have a couple of injuries and had a couple of ressies back up and they were instrumental."
McLennan will be sweating on good news for Lee.
He added Brownsea was best on ground, but will only have him for two more weeks before he returns to college in the US.
"He gets better and better, so it's a shame we'll lose him," McLennan said.
"He's a good bloke to have around the club as well."
Grove was clearly frustrated with the way the day ended, both personally and as a team.
Boomers were forced to make three changes in defence, forming a new centre back pairing between Jordan Crawford and Dylan Nhansana to cover Adam Griffith and Nick Brown.
"Guys were on their heels a bit and they're a real energy team, you can't start flat against them or they'll run all over you," Grove said.
"We got the first goal in the first couple of minutes, but after that they really started to push us and we went away from our game plan.
"We can match it with the best, we just need to keep our best team on the park."
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