Berries leave sour taste in Demons? mouths

The match actually saw both teams score, but the locals turned the ball into the back of their own net to open the scoring and the Berries never looked back from there, doubling the lead just over a quarter of an hour later
From the kick-off the Berries attacked down the left hand side. John Tsironis benefited from this very early work and his first shot was only parried by Ivan Necevski in the Blacktown City goal.
Tsironis jumped on the rebound and shot from a very tight angle but it went across the face of goal and ended up just passing by the wrong side of the far post. It would have been a disastrous start but Blacktown held on.
Minute four saw John Fotiadis run onto a long ball and beat the defence. He chipped the ball to the far post but Tsironis could not convert out there and the ball went wide.
In the 9? minute Tyler Simpson had Blacktown?s first shot from 25-metres out and it went well over the top.
Five minutes later a Daniel Wilkinson free-kick from the left came across the goal and Simpson got a touch on the ball after it went through traffic, but Berries? keeper Hamish McLean saw the danger off with an easy save.
The game settled after the Berries slowed down from their hectic start but still the majority of chances were going their way. In the 20^? minute a Tsironis free header in the area from a Ryan Jones corner on the left finished just over the bar when it should have been on target. Then a long throw-in was headed on to Giosue Sama at the far post but his header was also not goal bound.
A minute later Paul Karbon cleared the ball facing his own goal and nearly fired it into his own net. It was a warning on the dangers of clearances when facing your own goal that Blacktown would not heed.  
In the 28^? minute the end-to-end action continued, this time with Brian Vanega playing a one-two with Simpson before trying to lay if off to his striker, but the visitors defenders? got to it first and turned the ball around their post.
A few minutes later Vanega was at it again, running onto a great ball from Wilkinson but being cut down by the defence. Right on half-time disaster struck the Demons as Vanega fell down in the centre circle. He played no further part in the game and looks to have suffered a major knee injury for the second time in two seasons.
Blacktown was lucky to have held on to a 0-0 score-line at the break but they did so and may have felt they could still snatch something from the game.
Leo Carle started the second-half with a shot from distance but it went well over.
Seven minutes after the break the ball was played down the left by Ryan Jones for the Berries into the path of Aheleas Kotsopoulos, the Berries midfielder put the ball across the goal mouth and Blacktown defender Luka Dukic, making his first team debut, put his foot out to prevent the Berries player sweeping in behind him- though diverting the past Necevski and into his own net.
Around the hour both Giosue and Nick Sama stepped up and caused the Blacktown City defence all sorts of headaches. In the 62^? minute Nick laid the ball to Giosue only for Daniel Wilkinson to slide in-front of him and clear the ball away from a very dangerous position.
Blacktown City continued to press and Hamish McLean had to punch a cross away from his far post that had been put in by substitute Matt Lewis.
However Blacktown City?s efforts at the attacking end of the park were not to be matched at the back.
On 68? minutes Nick Sama stole the ball off the defence and ran goal wards, attracting the only cover defence, before laying the ball off to brother Giosue Sama who easily converted to double West Sydney?s lead.
Blacktown City continually made errors when coming out from the back causing their attack to be very stuttered, although substitute Jesse Pinto did add some hope with his influence, working off the good work of Daniel Wilkinson.
For the Berries both Sama boys continued to threaten at the front whilst Scott Baillie was magnificent in defence for his side. A last minute free-kick on the edge of the area was spurned by Blacktown and Giosue Sama could have added a third for Berries as he broke forward but his shot too went over the cross bar.
Two-nil at full-time was obviously disappointing for Blacktown City coach Ken Schembi:
?We are suffering. When you are down, the luck will go against you. There was a young lad out there today playing his first game in first grade and he scores an own goal.
?We keep on battling but the hard knocks keep coming. We have a lot of players injured (Pressello, Jordan Simpson, Maroney, Walsh, Kaawi, Rasmussen to name a few) and lost another tonight (Vanega). We cannot get balance, we are yet to start the same eleven for two weeks running. We will keep on going though.?
Scott Baillie was delighted to get a result out of such an important match:
?The result tonight is possibly a turning point for us. We have been a yo-yo team for the last five to six weeks. We have been making silly mistakes and perhaps having me out there tonight barking instructions from the back has helped stop that.
“This game was important for both teams and for the first time since our game against Sydney Olympic we were hungry for it. Now we can build on this for the second-half of the season.?
MATCH STATS
Blacktown City Demons 0
West Sydney Berries 2 (Luka Dukic own goal 52?, Giosue Sama 68?)
Venue: Gabbie Stadium
Referee: Ryan Shepheard
Crowd: 350
Blacktown City Demons: 1. Ivan NECEVSKI; 3. Paul KARBON, 4. Daniel WILKINSON, 6. Ken CHUN, 7. Tyler SIMPSON, 8. Chris BEDZO, 10. Leo CARLE, 13. Ben ELLIS (9. Bruno Salas 66?), 16. Adam BIDDLE (18. Jesse PINTO 71?), 19. Brian VANEGA (29. Matt LEWIS 46?), 21. Luka DUKIC
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Matt NEMES, 11. Nicholas ROUCO
Yellow cards: Tyler Simpson 6? Luka Dukic 12?
Red cards: Nil
West Sydney Berries: 1. Hamish MCLEAN; 4. Scott BAILLIE, 6. Jack SOBCZYK, 7. Scott THOMAS, 8. John FOTIADIS, 9. Nick SAMA (19. Dimitri ZAKILAS 88?), 10. John TSIRONIS (17. Sash Tirovski 77?), 11. Archie KOTSOPOULOS, 15. Ryan JONES (14. Craig JACOBS 92?), 18. Giosue SAMA, 21. Joshua FERGUSON
Substitutes Not Used: J FRANGESKOU
Yellow Cards: John Tsironis 66?, Scott Thomas 86?
Red cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Giosue Sama (WSB)
2 – Nick Sama (WSB)
1 – Daniel Wilkinson (BCD)
-By Stuart Jones