Boardman double secures victory over lacklustre Tigers
It was no more than they deserved and after the game Sharks coach Robbie Stanton couldn?t hide his delight when he stated:
?We had good discipline and shape. It was a pretty good, professional display today.
?It?s a pretty big pitch and we had a few injury concerns before the game, but the players who took the field assured me they were 100%.
?It?s a good team and there are areas we always want to work on, but we aim to play to a certain standard every week and we certainly put the effort in today.?
Spectators had hardly time to settle into their seats when Bradley Boardman opened the scoring with a deft shot in between two defenders that ended up in the top right-hand corner of the net.
It was a cruel blow for the Sydney Tigers who were looking to make a positive start after such an abysmal first-half performance seven days earlier against Sydney United. The defence was certainly caught out at such an early stage.
It was the pattern for all three of Sutherland?s goals. Some good individual effort was more than handsomely rewarded by poor Tigers defending.
It was a fact that the relatively new Tigers coach Luke McGuire acknowledged after the game:
?Once again we started slowly and they beat us to the ball and you can?t compete in this league with defending like that,? he said rather philosophically.
?We created more chances than we did last week, but when you let a team score three goals you are not in the contest and it?s not just the defence because it?s the whole team.
?We defend as a team and we attack as a team; we can?t have one player going in and one player going out.?
In the 15? minute Robert Younis found himself with the ball at his feet in a good position, but Nathan Denham had little trouble denying him a Tigers goal.
Sutherland replied almost immediately when Michael Katz found too much space down the left-flank and with a pin-point accurate cross found an unmarked Boardman in an excellent position, but his header somehow sailed just wide.
Sydney Tigers then took the game to Sutherland with their best phase of play from the 22? minute mark. Three good chances in a few minutes were not converted.
Younis was first to try his luck from just outside the penalty-area, but his effort was too high. Shortly afterwards Jamie McMaster played a lovely ball to Younis but Denham pulled off a brilliant reflex save.
The third chance was arguably the best for the Tigers when Franco Parisi trotted from halfway and sent through a delightful ball to Stephen Kayes who unfortunately was unable to beat Denham from close range.
The momentum then swung from the Tigers back to the Sharks and on the 28? minute mark Panagiotis Nikas brilliantly found Neil Jablonski in the box, but he was denied by a nice Phillip Zabaks save.
Chris Price was left alone two minutes later and his incisive run from the halfway line went unchallenged, but it was to no avail as he skewed his shot wide of the goal.
However, the team from The Shire went further ahead on 31? minutes when a beautiful cross from Katz found Boardman totally unmarked and from close-range he headed home.
After a half-time pep talk from McGuire it seemed that the Tigers meant business early in the second stanza of play. An early header from Younis from a corner kick went just over.
Four minutes later Parisi set up Michael Hawrysiuk but his shot from close range was once again well saved by Denham.
The Tigers though did strike through a wonder goal from Parisi when he collected a loose ball and, with an absolutely brilliant strike, sent the ball flying into the bottom corner of the net. It was the sort of goal that provides the inspiration for a comeback, but it was not the case today for the lacklustre Tigers.
In the 62? minute the Sharks restored their two-goal advantage when Jablonski nicely set up Katz who easily got past John Kelso and threaded the ball home between Zabaks and the left upright. It was all too easy given the poor defending on offer.
Replacement Mathew Hall arguably missed a golden chance in the 74? minute when he found himself one-on-one against Zabaks, but the Tigers custodian pulled off the save of the game to deny him a goal.
Three minutes later Danial Cummins received his second yellow card when a silly challenge was rightly punished. Having already been booked 30? minutes earlier, the only option was an early shower.
In the end it didn?t make much difference to the scoreline as both teams had already resigned themselves to a 3-1 result.
Match Stats
Sydney Tigers 1 (Franco Parisi 58?)
Sutherland Sharks 3 (Brad Boardman 1?, 31?, Michael Katz 62?)
Sunday, 26th April, 2009
Leichhardt Oval, Leichhardt
Referee: Andrew Best
Assistant Referees: Gareth Askham and Bachar Allam
Sydney Tigers: 99.Phillip Zabaks; 2.Mark Byrnes, 3.John Kelso, 5.Michael Galluzzo (24.Jason Trifiro 79?), 7.Stephen Kayes (4.Daniel Clifford 77?), 9.Robert Younis, 10.Franco Parisi, 12.Michael West, 15.Danial Cummins, 16.Michael Hawrysiuk, 19.Jamie McMaster
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Giancarlo Papaianni, 13.Stefan Donevski,
Yellow Cards: Danial Cummins 47? and 77?, Michael Galluzzo 60?, Robert Younis 75?, John Kelso 80?
Red Card: Danial Cummins 77?
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris, 4.Michael Robinson, 18.Neil Jablonski, 9.Bradley Boardman (10.Matthew Hall 67?), 7.Jim Bakis, 8.Nathan Ralph, 6.Chris Price, 23.Panagiotis Nikas, 3.Srecko Mitrovic, 15.Michael Katz.
Substitutes Not Used: 98.Blake Powell, 17.Jordan Nikolovski, 19.Matthew Villazon, 33.Ryan Emmerton
Yellow Cards: Michael Katz 64?
Player Ratings:
3 – Michael Katz (SS)
2 – Chris Price (SS)
1 – George Souris (SS)
-By Joe Russo
