Port Kembla charges toward Illawarra Premier League grand final with Wollongong United win

Port Kembla continued their late charge towards defending their grand final crown and knocked Wollongong United out of the title race with a gritty 1-0 minor-semi victory at Wetherall Park on Sunday.

A sumptuous strike from Mitchell Scazzariello inside the opening quarter of an hour proved enough for the defending premiers to set up a preliminary final date with Dapto Dandaloo Fury next weekend.

Scazzariello pounced first on the ball after Nuno Pires had brought it down and fired a magnificent shot into the top corner.

It ensured Port remain undefeated in league matches since June 21, having established a nine match unbeaten run to qualify for this year's finals.

"Overall I am pretty happy with the performance," coach Stuart Beedie said.

"I think we could have done better with our chances. The possession in the second half there I thought we didn't make the most of them when we were in situations of three versus two.

"That's football. We battled away all day and so did they.

"It was a close game and one goal was enough."

Beedie didn't have to wait long to see his goal with Scazzariello's winner coming just 11 minutes into the match.

United weren't without chances to equalise and piled on the pressure in the second half after a sloppy opening to play following the interval.

Their best chance came 10 minutes into the second stanza when golden boot winner Robbie Shields was played in, only to be denied by a strong low save from David Poeira.

Shields and fellow front man Johnny Martinoski looked dangerous at times but were unable to find the telling blow.

Both were involved in another of the Reds' strong second half raids when a goal mouth scramble eventually found its way to Brendan Reilly on the half volley.

But a scrambling Daniel Aliffi acrobatically headed clear to snuff out the chance and end United's hopes.

"In the attacking third we weren't there," United coach Oliver Vrtkovski said.

"Too many offsides, a bit of bad luck in front of goal but defensively we were quite sound. I can't question that or challenge that. In front of goal today we just weren't there.

"We haven't lost two in-a -row all year so to lose two in-a-row in a semi-final is quite hard to take. Unfortunately some of the boys weren't on their game today and it showed.

"Credit to Port Kembla, they showed a bit of grit and good luck to them next week."

A robust defence display from Port's ack-three Peter Richardson, Robbie Brown and Matt Werakso laid the foundation for the win.