Vidaic settles the points against Bankstown City
Looked on by United old boys Zelkjo Kalac, Tony Popovic, and Ante Milicic the first-half was dominated by opportunities for Sydney United.
The only one they took full advantage of, though, was their first in the third minute. Chris Boyle went down the left, beating three players in the process, and from the by-line cut the ball back into Ben Vidaic who had lost his man in the area and Vidaic smacked the ball home.
A minute later Vidaic was at it again, this time acting as the supporting link between Luka Glavas, who had made a dangerous run to the edge of the area, and Chris Boyle who was unable to pounce on the through ball Vidaic had played him because he slipped at the worst possible moment.
Had he not slipped he would have been in a great position one-on-one with the Bankstown custodian.
The game continued its up-tempo two minutes later Bankstown City claimed a penalty when Robbie Mileski was pushed to the ground in the area.
However the appeals were quickly dismissed by referee Jonathan Streater.
After the early onslaught possession evened out but Bankstwon were let down by the final ball into the area.
In the 21′ minute Glavas beat the defence on the left and then goal keeper Joseski but his chip into the goal was cleared off the line by a desperate Richard Luksic.
It was a great save by the defender off the line. Bankstown were rattled again but again came up trumps as they denied Vidaic in the 23rd minute.
The ball then broke forward through Andre Gumprecht, and he played a great ball into Mileski. Mileski then put the ball into the area, bypassing Gumprecht and going to George Nohra who brought the ball down but his shot went high and wide.
Bankstown City continued to threaten, especially on the quick break and ball over the top to James Monie, and attacking raids down the right flank by Steve Liavis.
However the home side had the clear chances and in the 36′ they again did not make the most of them. Ben Vidaic played a brilliant deft ball into the path of strike partner Glavas that 25 metres from the target put only the goal keeper between he and the goal.
He advanced on Joseski and tried to round him but he did not do this effectively and his final shot was pushed around the near post by a recovering Joseski. It should have been a goal but demonstrated what this match meant to Bankstown.
Two minutes later Glavas did have one last effort for the half after good lead up work from Ivo Bosnar but his effort is shut down by the defence and Peter Markovic?s long range effort was off target.
In the 39‘ minute the game had added drama when Phil Makrys clipped Luka Glavas and the Reds striker completely flipped head over feet in the air. He came down on his back (fortunate not to have landed on his head and done damage to his neck) but was shaken and ended up being replaced at half-time.
After the break it seemed more of the same as Sydney United spurned another opportunity.
Right on the halfway last line Vidaic was crunched but the referee allowed play to continue, playing good advantage, as half time substitute Elsid Barkhousir ran clear of the defence but yet again Zlatko Joseski came out on top and denied Sydney United.
Then just before the hour Petar Markovic saw his shot go the wrong side of the far post by centimetres.
Bankstown had started to move the ball further upfield and really pressed the locals, however their final ball was still preventing them from executing a shot on target. That would take 87′ minutes.
In the 70‘ minute Andre Gumprecht became even more involved in the game but once more the field position he helped set up with Robbie Mileski was denied from being turned into a shot on goal as the ball was cut out by Joe Vrkic in the heart of the defence.
Five minutes later the referee flagged away Bankstown’s claims for a penalty as Joe Moric roughly took Mileski down in the area.
Despite the push by Bankstown, Sydney United still had clear cut chances with Markovic being particularly dangerous. In the 84‘ minute his full-blooded shot was parried away brilliantly at point blank by Joseski.
Then three minutes from time Bankstown City finally got a shot on target. It came from Mileski and it was on target but Vedran Janjetovic in the Sydney United goal flicked the ball around the far post with his finger tips.
From the resultant corner Zlatko Joseski even came up to try and score but there were no Jimmy Glass of Carlisle United heroics as he did not score.
In injury-time Ivo Bosnar had a shot from over halfway that caught Joseski off his line but the Bankstown keeper dived like John Dyson for the Australian cricket team all those years ago and managed to keep the long-range out of his goal.
Then with moments remaining Bankstown had a free-kick just outside the area but wasted it by hitting it into the wall by taking it too quickly.
One-nil the final result and Sydney United coach Ivan Petkovic was a relieved man: ?We had four or five good chances apart from the goal and our first-half performance was exceptional. In the second-half they came at us and we lost our shape with the loss of Glavas and Boyle. In the end I am happy with the result as this was a really important match for us.?
The coaching staff at Bankstown were disappointed with the conditions they faced and the fact that they did not score in the 90 minutes:
?We did not adapt to the disappointing ground conditions tonight. However in the end if you do not score you do not win and we let ourselves down in that regard. In the second half we pushed well but did not put the ball into the back of the net.?
Sydney United 1 (Ben Vidaic 3′)
Bankstown City 0
Venue: Edensor Park
Referee: Jonathan Streater
Crowd: 600
Sydney United: 1 Vedran Janjetovic 3 Joe Moric 5 Damon Collina 6 Joe Vrkic 21 Saso Trajcevski 10 Mark Robertson 23 Ivo Bosnar 14 Petar Markovic 15 Chris Boyle (74? 7 Todd Brodie) 13 Ben Vidaic (79? 18 Andrija Petkovic) 11 Luka Glavas (46? 16 Elsid Barkhousir)
Substitutes Not Used: 31 Anthon Golez 20 Aaron Rigato
Yellow Cards: Saso Trajcevski 33? Chris Boyle 60? Elsid Barkhousir 84
Red Cards: Nil
Bankstown City: 1 Zlatko Joseski 3 Shane Webb 4 Brett Studman 5 Richard Luksic 6 Peter Tsekenis 7 Stefanos Liavis (63? 2 Ibrahim Haydar) 8 George Nohra 9 James Monie (78? 19 Paul Harries) 10 Robert Mileski 11 Phillip Makrys (74? 16 Tayfun Devrimol) 13 Andre Gumprecht
Substitutes Not Used: 20 Ander Bazi 99 Chris Godoy-Bascur
Yellow Cards: Phillip Makrys 39? Stefanos Liavis 63
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Ben Vidaic (SU)
2 – Zlatko Joseski (BC)
1 – Chris Boyle (SU)
-By Stuart Jones
