Albury United 1 Cobram Roar 1: Red card for Melkie Woldemichael the big talking point

Melkie Woldemichael was shown a straight red card for his role in an off-the-ball incident with Ben Zito after a consultation between the referee and his assistant.

The Greens led 1-0 at that stage but conceded an equaliser on the stroke of half-time and spent most of the second period camped inside their own half.

However, Cobram struggled to break them down and United's Matt Campbell was the happier of the two coaches at full-time.

"It was a pretty ugly game, the decision probably killed it as a contest," he said.

"I'm relatively happy given the send-off so early in the game, to be able to dig in and defend.

"We still thought we could maybe get a counter-attacking goal but we just needed to stay organised defensively and make sure they didn't pinch one.

"The keeper and two centre-backs were tremendous, there were lots of high balls coming in and they were winning them and getting them away.

"At the start of the game, we were playing for three points but after having a player sent off so early, to come away with a draw is pretty good."

United made a flying start and deservedly took the lead on 14 minutes, Caleb Martin scoring with a looping header from Alex Howard's deep cross.

But four minutes later came the day's big talking point when Zito went to ground near the Cobram bench after a coming together with Woldemichael.

The eyes of most people were on the ball further down the touchline but the assistant had a clear view.

"I actually didn't see it," Cobram coach Vince Iannucci admitted.

"I turned around and said 'what the hell happened?'

"Apparently Melkie punched Ben Zito in the chest and it was their linesman that alerted the referee.

"You know what, he could have turned a blind eye, but credit to him."

Campbell was on the opposite side of the ground.

"There's been no explanation given," he said.

"Clearly the central ref didn't see anything.

"No-one but the player on the ground remonstrated, none of the Cobram players or bench said anything.

"If it was something severe, you'd expect their players to come rushing in in.

"The ball was out of play so I don't know why the Cobram player thought it was OK to get up in Melkie's face."

Aidan Rees missed a great chance to make it 2-0, blazing over the bar when Jordan Hore slipped him through, before Bill Puckett headed against the bar from Mohd Hizam Rani's free-kick at the other end.

Cobram's equaliser came from the penalty spot, Florian Dambricourt sending Jay Barker the wrong way after Ben Smith had lunged in and brought down Martin Louchet.

It was attack against defence in the second half but Cobram's barrage of high balls, without the burly presence of Jack Dovey to aim for, were meat and drink to Barker, who also saved well to thwart Anthony Corso and Dambricourt.

"They outsmarted us and credit to them," Iannucci said.

"You could tell, one minute into the second half, that they weren't going to play, they were going to park the bus and make us work out how to get around it.

"We didn't think smart enough and we didn't go forward with any purpose.

"But when you've got Albury United sitting in their 18-yard box, at their home ground, not wanting to play, you've done the right thing.

"They put on a defensive mentality at half-time and thought 'we're not going to be able to play them, man for man, one player down, it's just not going to happen.'

"That's what I took out of it after a minute of the second half."

On the other side of Jelbart Park, a hat-trick from Yasin Sumaili and two Rhyce Hore goals fired Wodonga Diamonds to a 5-3 win over Albury City.

Adam Burchell netted three times in Wangaratta's 4-1 win away to Melrose, while leaders Boomers moved two points clear at the top, thrashing St Pats 7-1 with Andrew Grove and Kye Halloway bagging five between them.

Myrtleford beat Albury Hotspurs 3-2 in the day's other game.

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