Penrith Nepean continue winning streak with victory over Bankstown

For the second time this season Bankstown City was left to play out a match with only 9 men against a full compliment of players for the opposition.
In hot conditions, and despite a valiant effort from their opponents, Penrith put on three unanswered goals to secure their second win on the trot.
Things had not started well for Bankstown City as Richard Luksic was penalised in the 10? minute for a handball in his own area and Eric Anabalon put his penalty past Zlatko Josevski and into the back of the net with a classy spot kick.
Then midfielder Phil Makrys was sent off for a tough tackle on current Sydney FC rising star Nick Tsattalios.
That decision was argued about by the fans, your viewpoint depending upon which side you supported, but there seemed little justification for the second red card as Tsattalios was lightly tackled by Steve Liavis who immediately got his marching orders from referee James Lewis.
Immediately following this red card all the players were involved in a fracas that was well-handled by the referee and fortunately did not lead to any further players having to leave the field.
However, 26? minutes in and the game was over as a contest. In the heat, nine men were never going to be enough and only a minute later Penrith consolidated their numeric dominance with a second goal.
It was in the 27? minute that Eric Anabalon found himself free in space in the middle of the park.
As Nick Tsattalios peeled around his left and dragged a defender with him, Anabalon saw the opportunity in front of him and fired a cracking shot low into the far corner to double his own tally and his side?s lead.
For the following ten minutes Bankstown City hit back, and with a load of possession set up half-chances for themselves, thanks to the hard work of men like Shane Webb, George Nohra and Tayfun Devrimol.
However Luke Boyd in the middle of the park and Ante Juric and Ozguk Kanyilmaz behind him cleaned up these half breaks for the locals.
As tiredness set in for Bankstown City towards the close of the first half both Carl McNaughton and Nathan Ralph spurned great chances to push Penrith into an unassailable position.
The start of the second-half saw Bankstown City start strongly as they chased a goal that would give them a sniff at a point.
Penrith withheld this counter well, although it was hard to realise during this period that Bankstown City were down two players.
In the 53? minute James Monie and Ben Wright got tangled up in a challenge, with substitute Wright (having only come on at the break for Tsattalios) having to be taken off on a stretcher with a bad leg injury.
In the 62? minute Paul Harries played George Nohra into the area and he stepped around some poor defence from the locals, and fired a shot on target that was touched onto the cross bar by Daniel Schwarzer in the Penrith goal.
From this point though the extra numbers saw Penrith dominate.
However their final ball was not great and the side seemed intent on not conceding a goal rather than racking up a huge scoreline.
Carl McNaughton saw his shot cleared of the line by Richard Luksic in the 71? minute.
Then golden opportunities fell to Eric Anabalon, Nathan Ralph and Tayfun Buyukkopru but none went into the back of the net.
Right on full-time Eric Anabalon went on another attacking raid and laid the ball back into the path of a rampaging William Stuart who fired the ball home for the final goal of the match.
For Penrith-Nepean United it was a much needed second win whilst a valiant Bankstown City had to be disappointed in the circumstances but proud of the huge effort the side put up. 
Bankstown City coach Peter Tsekenis was proud of his players:
?We fought hard tonight, it was tough but we never said die and fought until the end.?
Penrith Nepean United coach Abbas Saad was delighted with the performance of his players as well.
?We came out strong today and played well, we were 1-0 up with 11 players each and looked confident in the game.
?In the second half we dropped off but we kept possession and played smart.
?We knew they could still play well with 9 men and had to be wary of that but it gives us great confidence going into the break.?
Match Stats
Penrith Nepean United 3 (Eric Anabalon 11?, 27?, William Stuart 91?)
Bankstown City 0
Venue: CUA Stadium
Referee: James Lewis

Crowd: 1000
Penrith Nepean United: 42 Daniel Schwarzer, 28 Ante Juric, 17 Ozguk Kanyilmaz, 2 William Stuart, 5 Luke Boyd, 3 Nick Tsattalios (20 Ben Wright 45? ? 23 Devrim Huseyin 53?), 7 Javier Mancino (10 Tayfun Buyukkopru 76?), 11 Eric Anabalon, 13 Nathan Ralph, 9 Carl McNaughton, 16 Michael Cromar.
Substitutes not used: 1 Chad Taylor, 6 Jack Long.
Yellow Cards: None
Red Cards: None
Bankstown City: 1 Zlatko Josevski, 2 Ibrahim Haydar, 3 Shane Webb, 5 Richard Luksic, 7 Steve Liavis, 8 George Nohra, 9 James Monie, 11. Phil Makrys, 12. Stefan Solevski (10. Robbie Mileski 45?), 16. Tayfun Devrimol, 19. Paul Harries (36. Matthew Borg 72?).
Substitutes not used: 17. Danny Grozdanovski, 18. Obad Saadi, 21. Andrew Bazi.
Yellow Cards: 5 Richard Luksic 10?, 9 James Monie 53?
Red Cards: 11. Phil Makrys 18?, 26 Steve Liavis 26?
Player Ratings:
3 – Luke Boyd (PNU)
2 – Erick Anabalon (PNU)
1 – Shane Webb (BC)
-By Stuart Jones