Image: South West Queensland Thunder

Sunshine Coast Fire surged to fifth in the NPL Queensland standings after downing a valiant South West Queensland Thunder 3-1 on Saturday at Clive Berghofer Stadium.

A second half brace to Futa Nakamura sealed Fire the points after Thunder’s Ryan Ensor cancelled out Matt Needham’s first-half opener.

Both teams created early chances as Ensor and Nakamura both missed opportunities to give their team the lead in the opening exchanges.

The sides continued to trade blows with Dave Macrae’s shot blocked for Fire and Ensor setting up Tom Fanning for Thunder, who shot wide of the post.

Needham found the breakthrough on 25 minutes, slotting the ball home after a sublime build-up from Ryan Delahunty created the opportunity.

Traditional Toowoomba fog greeted the players for the second half but the contest’s attacking flavour remained unaffected.

Ensor levelled terms with a sublime individual goal as he ran 35 yards before delivering an assured finish.

The goal was Thunder’s first since early March and ended a nine game scoreless run for the Toowoomba club.

Noticeably buoyed, the hosts flirting with taking the lead before being caught off guard by a Fire counter-attack that saw Nakamura open his account by slipping his shot past Thunder goalkeeper Jace Hudson.

Both teams tired as the match drew to a close and a momentary lapse of concentration from Hudson on 84 minutes saw his clearance fall to Fire with Nakamura on hand to net his second and seal the result.

A late chance fell to Thunder’s Matthew Carey, but he proved trigger-shy in the one-on-one with Fire goalkeeper Antony Hall.

The win is the third straight for Fire as they continue to make amends for an inconsistent start to the campaign, while Thunder remain last in the standings.

South West Queensland Thunder 1 (Ryan ENSOR 49’)
Sunshine Coast Fire 3 (Matt NEEDHAM 25’, Futa NAKAMURA 58’ 84’)