Sharks smash five past Wollongong
Having lost their home ground John Crehan Park for the foreseeable future to a black beetle infestation, WCFC had to find an alternative ground, get it inspected and approved by Football New South Wales and field a first grade team ravaged by injuries and suspensions against last year’s minor premiers..
In a highly entertaining Youth League fixture, ?the community? came back from 0-3 after having two players, including their goalkeeper sent off to snatch a gutsy and improbable 3-3 draw and earn themselves a standing ovation from the healthy crowd.
In contrast the first grade encounter, which on paper promised so much failed to deliver any joy for the home fans.
Both sides were weakened by the loss of key players. Stavroulakis and Boardman for Sutherland, and Bronnenberg, Able, Kearns and Kaynak for Wollongong.
The game started tentatively, as have many recent encounters between Wollongong and Sutherland. Neither side seemed able to produce the passing they have both been renowned for.
Both midfields were busy without really being very effective. The first real chance of the game came on 16 minutes and produced what can only be described as a comedy of errors. A scuffed and misdirected clearance fell to Sutherland’s Nikas, who, with the goalkeeper half stranded contrived to miss hit and skew his first time shot, a scrambling defender then miscued his clearance back to Nikas who this time made no mistake with a crisp volley and it was one nil to Sutherland.
Up until this point, Wollongong’s makeshift defence marshalled by the East Timorese Captain Alfredo Esteves had looked very solid and had thwarted every Sutherland attack. Likewise Souris had snuffed out the neat one twos that Wollongong were trying to put together.
On 28? minutes a cross from the right saw Ben Spruce first to the ball and his bullet header hit the back of the Wollongong net ? 2-0 Sutherland.
Even at this point some in the crowd were hoping for another famous Wollongong fightback, but Sutherland showed that they are a fine side and began to assert their control over a very young, inexperienced and depleted Wollongong team.
Chris Price should have done better from a couple of yards out when he skied his effort over and Hall and Nikas also squandered chances.
A rare moment of brilliance from Corey Gameiero, where he turned three Sutherland defenders inside out, bamboozled and teased them and a half chance for Balla Conde were all that the Wollongong faithful had to cheer in a reasonably lack lustre first half.
Whether Robbie Stanton had harsh words for his team at the break or not, the reigning minor premiers emerged for the second-half with a level of intensity that they had previously failed to show this season.
Hall and Bakis began to see far more of the ball. Wollongong lost the influential Esteves to injury and he was replaced by Youth team captain Corey Horner who had already completed 90? minutes in a 9 man side.
From here on in nothing seemed to go right for Wollongong. An innocuous looking challenged led to a penalty award in Sutherland’s favour, Jim Bakis step up and although he placed his kick high into the top right hand corner, somehow Alex Agusto managed to pull off a brilliant save and claw it away to safety.
Wollongong rode their luck but were just hanging in by the skin of their teeth. Augusto pulled off another great save and Jamie Pitt seemed to have done enough to foil Price at the back post only to be shown his second yellow by referee Stibinger, the subsequent red card and have a penalty awarded against him.
This time Hall stepped up and left Augusto with no chance from the spot kick. 3-0 Sutherland.
The ten men of Wollongong could not repeat the heroics that they had displayed against Bonnyrigg and succumbed to a second Nikas goal two minutes later.
Price rounded off the scoring for Sutherland with some of his customary back post poaching on 72? minutes.
Wollongong Captain Steve Hayes restored some home pride when he smashed an unstoppable shot from 25 yards out past the otherwise outstanding Denham.
After the match WCFC coach Tony Pace the Wollongong Coach commented:
?I am not going to make excuses, our difficulties are well documented. We simply didn’t play well today. We made mistakes and got punished for them.?
Sutherland’s Robbie Stanton was modest about the score-line:
?We haven’t started our campaign well, but today we finally played the football we have been threatening to do. The surface wasn’t the best but it was the same for both sides. It is the best we have played so far and I am very pleased with the result?.
Match Stats
Wollongong FC 1 (Steve Hayes 85?)
Sutherland Sharks 5 (Panagiolis Nikas 16?, 68′, Ben Spruce 28′, Matt Hall 66? (pen), Chris Price 72′)
Ground: Slacky Flat, Bulli Greyhound Race Track
Sunday March 29 2009
Referee: Atila Stibinger
Assistants: M Wilson & Brett Woodford
Fourth Official : Miles Allen-Scott
Crowd: 475
Wollongong FC: 1.Alex AUGUSTO; 2.Kieran DEANE, 3.Jamie PITT, 4.Alfredo ESTEVEZ (16. Corey HORNER), 7.Josh PRICE (18.Steve DIMITRIEVSKI) , 6.Illija PRENZOSKI, 9.Steve HAYES, 10.Ballamodou CONDE, 15.James LAWRENCE, 17. Chris NATHANIEL (14.Daniel CORTEZ), 13.Cory GAMIERO
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Bryce DAENELL (rgk),
Yellow cards: Jamie PITT 53′, 66′?, Cory GAMIERO.86?
Red cards: Jamie PITT 66?
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris, 4.Michael Robinson, 7.Jim Bakis (19.Matthew Villazon) , 8.Nathan Ralph (21.Aram Tayebi), 10.Matthew Hall (98.Blake Powell), 11.Ben Spruce, 12.Neil Jablonski, 15.Michael Katz, 23.Panagiotis Nikas
Substitutes Not Used: 17.Jordan Nikolovski, 20.Adam Foadur
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Matthew Hall (SS)
2 – Chris Price (SS)
1 – Alex Augusto (WCFC)
-By David Wallace
