Sharks season starts here as Berries buried

Forgetting the previous 20-matches, Sutherland knew nothing short of a victory in-front of their vocal home crowd would be good enough to take next weeks encounter with Wollongong FC into the Premiership deciding match in the TeleChoice Premier League for season 2008.
Oddly enough, West Sydney Berries could smell a result early on and really took the game to the home side who were missing four first team regulars and looked a little disjointed for much of the opening period when being reduced to a couple of good half-chances. Unfortunately for the visitors, their task at hand became unbearable when Jack Sobczyk was given his marching orders, the Berries defender can consider himself dreadfully unlucky to be marched from the field.
After 41? minutes of a gripping contest, a long-ball was pumped up-field for Brad Boardman to chase. His marker, Sobczyk, had negated almost everything the lanky striker had produced to that point, but as Boardman ran across the front of Sobczyk the defender was forced to put the brakes on and inadvertently clipped the heel of the powerful front man bringing him to the ground outside the box. As the last defender, and under the rules of the game, Sobczyk was shown a straight red card for an innocent looking accident which proved the catalyst for the turning moment in the contest.
Jimmy Bakis stroked the resultant free-kick from 25-yards out with some aplomb as it cleared the wall, dipped and slid home under the bar on Berries goalkeeper Hamish McLean?s right, with the custodian given no chance of reaching it as the Sharks hit the front.
The Berries had created the better of the first-half chances with the good form of Phillip Zabaks in the Sharks net keeping them in the game on at least two occasions, but it was a goal down they found themselves at the break.
Still with all to play for in the second period it was somewhat of a surprise the Sharks really rammed home the one-man advantage after Michael Katz put in a tantalizing cross for Nick Stavroulakis to head toward goal but only succeeding in finding the back of a defender who inadvertently put the ball out for a corner. Before the corner was taken, a yellow card was shown to McLean, presumably for pushing in the area.
The Berries could have, and probably should have, equalised in the 53? minute when a Michael Cunico effort screwed across the face of goal, though moments later the Sharks doubled their advantage.
Stavroulakis, playing his best game in weeks, slotted home a second for the Sharks when deftly lobbing the advancing goalkeeper, all but ending any hope the Berries had as it was a bitter up-hill climb for the visitors from here on in.
David Reid was brought down inside the box and up stepped Boardman to bury the penalty; and if the task for the Berries until now had been difficult it had just become impossible, especially as the lanky Sharks striker hit his second just two-minutes later to make it 4-0.
Matthew Hall, who came on for Jimmy Nikas after 65? minutes, added the Sharks? fifth before Boardman completed his hat-trick and the Berries had Ryan Jones sent-off with 3? minutes to go for ?foul and abusive language?.
A Berries spokesperson said afterwards:
?We took the game to the Sharks and everything was going according to plan until Sobczyk was sent-off.
?We had to readjust after that but we were still going for at least a point or even the win because we need points, but that was the pivotal moment of the game and after that we just couldn?t compete on even terms.?
Brian Brown was far happier with the points after the two previous league defeats when saying:
?Well it?s nice to get a win again.
?It?s been a feature this season when in the tough games that something happens like a send-off and puts a team under the pump, it?s been the same for all teams I would think.
?We made a couple of positional changes after the break and moved the Berries around and tired them. After that the goals started coming.
?We?ve scored something like 47-goals in 21 matches so far this season and, obviously, Brad (Boardman) is the competition leader but we?ve managed to share them around too so we must be doing something right.?
The result means that no matter what, the Premiership will be decided at Seymour Shaw Park next Sunday afternoon when the Wolves come to call in what promises to be a sellout crowd.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 6 (Jin Bakis 42?, Nick Stavroulakis 54?, Brad Boardman 68? (penalty), 70?, 86?, Matthew Hall 74?)
West Sydney Berries 0
Venue: Seymour Shaw Park
Referee: Jonathon Streater
Assistants: Dale Fuda and Lance Greenshields
Fourth Official: Brendan Johansson
Crowd: 967
Sutherland Sharks: 99. Phillip Zabaks; 15. Michael Katz, 2. George Souris, 39. Neil Jablonski, 38. Michael Robinson, 8. David Huxley, 7. Jimmy Bakis (20. Jimmy Lawrence 76?), 14. Nick Stavroulakis, 37. Jimmy Nikas (10. Matt Hall 65?), 9. Brad Boardman, 22. David Reid (19. Blake Powell 80?)
Substitutes Not Used: 21. Michael Brandalise, 31. Arum Derazkala
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
West Sydney Berries: 1. Hamish McLean; 3. Omar Saadi, 5. Michael Cunico, 6. Jack Sobczyk, 8. Jimmy Fotiadis (32. Kosta Lagoudakis 77?), 7. Scott Thomas, 15. Ryan Jones, 17. Sash Tirovski (21. Josh Ferguson 80?), 18. Giosue Sama (14. Craig Jacob 65?), 20. Angelo Petratos, 11. Aheleas Kotsopoulos
Substitutes Not Used: 10. John Tsironis, 13. James Webb
Yellow Cards: Hamish McLean 46?
Red Cards: Jack Sobczyk 41?, Ryan Jones 87?
Player Ratings:
3 ? Michael Katz (SS)
2 ? Neil Jablonski (SS)
1 ? Nick Stavroulakis (SS)
-By Micky Brock