United continued their recent dominance in the pre-season comp with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Coniston at Memorial Park on Sunday afternoon.

The club has now won four of the past five Frat Cup premierships, with Corrimal breaking that winning trend in 2019.

Billy Tsovorolos gave his side the 1-0 advantage before substitute Jeremy Flanagan put the icing on the cake in the 80^th minute,

Coniston had plenty of opportunities to score but were unable to overcame a strong and experienced United defence, led by Danny Lazarevski and Ben Brooks.

Mitsuo Yamada was a constant threat in attack for United, while Matthew Tschentscher was most dangerous for Coniston.

Sunday's final was nearly four months in the making. The sides were set to meet in mid-March, however, the game was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

United coach Oli Vrtkovski said it was a pleasing win but praised Coniston for their performance.

"I think we were quite well shaped coming into this game and I think our structure worked really well," he said.

"I think our movement onto the ball was really good but, credit to 'Conno', they played a very tactical game and held us quite well. They had their some chances, hit the cross bar twice, and they probably deserved more out of this game.

"Our pre season was fantastic and I would have loved to play Conno three or four months ago because we were in absolutely great shape. But you can see today, a heavy pitch is not conducive to our style of football. We like to knock the ball around, move it quickly and play possession style football. When we have to adjust to the conditions and the opposition, credit to our boys. They did adjust to the opposition and the pitch, and we came out on top."

Vrtkovski said there was one standout performer from his side.

"Billy Tsovorolos was outstanding, I don't think he lost a header and his talk around the middle of the park was sensational," he said.

Coniston coach Jeff Allport was left to rue a host of missed opportunities by his players.

"I thought we competed quite well and created a lot of chances, particularly in that first half," he said.

"We were right in the game and could have changed the outcome if we had taken one or two of those chances in the first 45. I think that's the big learning - when you create those chances, you've got to take them or you get stung the other way against quality sides.

"I thought the young boys that came on for them did really well and that's what sort of proved the difference. We tried everything we had towards the back end of the game but it just wasn't our day. But we'll learn from it."

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It was a see-sawing contest from the outset.

United started to gain the ascendancy around the 15-minute mark, forcing numerous corners as they piled on the pressure. Their best chance to score came soon after when Seiji Kawakami's shot from outside the box skimmed over the cross bar.

Kawakami - along with Kawasakiya Hikaru, Yamada and Andre Dias - looked dangerous in the opening 25 minutes for United while Blake Horton made some great saves at the back for Coniston.

However, the pressure finally proved too much for Coniston. From a corner, the ball deflected from Horton's gloves and Billy Tsovolos drilled it home from short range to give United a 1-0 lead.

But Coniston players refused to drop their heads, with a Matthew Tschentscher header from a corner just grazing over the cross bar.

Coniston had another great chance to score about five minutes later, but Takayuki Kayano's header was just too high.

Late in the half, United's Sean Thomas had a great chance to score but his shot just swung wide.

Tsovolos then put through a lovely ball to a flying Yamada, but Coniston's defence converged quickly and cleared the ball.

United led 1-0 at half time.

There was controversy straight after the break with United's James O'Rouke receiving a yellow card for his strong challenge on Tschentscher.

Minutes later, Mani Hondroudakis' low spearing effort from outside the box was parried away by United goalkeeper Jordan Nikolovski.

Coniston continued to have opportunities - including a powerful shot from Tomohito Fuseida that stayed wide but United's defence proved to be up to the task.

At the other end, a powerful strike from substitute Josh Correia nearly put the result beyond doubt, but he couldn't hit find the back of the net.

However, it was Coniston who continued to press hard. With about 25 minutes left, they were nearly rewarded when Lazarevski's errant header nearly resulted in an own goal.

From a nice Hondroudakis cross, Kayano found some space in the air but his header was off target.

However, it was United who broke the goal-scoring drought when Flanagan toed home a nice cross from Andre Dias in the 80^th minute to give his side a 2-0 lead.

And that's how the score remained.