Lions roar quells Sharks bite
The visitors were opened up by a Sharks team in the 1? minute of the match when Neil Jablonski latched on to a long-range floated free-kick, and back-heeled the ball past Zlatko Joseski inside the 6-yard area for the opening goal.
After the early setback the Lions clawed themselves relentlessly into the game and levelled through Hussein Salameh when he pinched the ball off Mike Robinson and sent a low-driven effort past Nathan Denham?s right.
It did prove to be a short-lived reprieve as once again the Sharks hit back within a minute to restore their one-goal lead and, once again, through Jablonski after good lead-up work down the right from Jimmy Bakis and Michael Katz.
Indeed, Bakis and Katz were revelling in the space down the right-flank but Jablonski was the one who really came out to show he was in good form, and perhaps could have netted his hat-trick with 7-minutes remaining in the half.
Chris Price rounded the goalkeeper, who managed to get his fingertips to the ball. Jablonski picked up the scraps, though Joseski was quick to thwart the chance.
Bankstown winger Stefanos Liavas found some space on the right-flank and sent over some telling crosses from the right but with no Lions player at the back stick the chances were squandered during a lively 45? minutes that contained some no-nonsense tackling and not a little fire on a chilly evening in the Shire that Referee Peter Vrtkovski controlled with authority.
Bankstown came out looking for the equaliser after the break and nearly found it after a good ball from Shane Webb picked out Hussein Akil in space but his shot was well saved by Denham.
The Sharks went straight up-field for Bakis to fire over a cross that Chris Price met and buried to extend the Sharks lead and at 3-1; it was certainly game over for the visitors, surely?.
Bankstown proved that it wasn?t the case, and they kept going.
On 72? minutes, a cross from Liavas was headed clear by the quick intervention of George Souris with plenty of Lions numbers steaming in had he missed.
Bankstown City did peg one back 2? minutes later when George Nohra found the net, which was just reward for the enterprising play that had thus far reaped little profit.
The goal of the game arrived in the 80? minute when a gloriously thunderous left-footed free-kick was placed well beyond Denham from fully 30-yards by Daniel Severino to pull the scores back level.
In the final minute of normal time, Hussein Akil stole in to find the net and complete the Bankstown comeback that seemed impossible; the proverbial game of two halves never had a truer ring as it was to be the Sharks who found themselves with no way back as Bankstown completed the comeback with some style.
Robbie Stanton was certainly a dejected figure after the game:
?We switched off after our third goal and sat back way too far to be of any help to Boardman up front and he was often left isolated with no support.
?We need to learn a big lesson from tonight in how to kill a game off and I am disappointed in the players because we really need to start playing and thinking smarter.
?We did gift Bankstown with two goals from uncharacteristic mistakes at the back and we won?t see that happen again this season but you have to credit the Lions for sticking to it but how we can be 3-one up with 16-minutes to play and lose 3-four is unacceptable at any level let alone this one.?
Peter Tsekenis was rightly pleased with the Lions performance:
?You can?t say that, not when it?s this Bankstown team,? when posed with the fact they were dead and buried at 3-one down.
?Obviously we were rattled after their early goal and for most of the first-half but we never felt we were out of the game at any stage,? he continued.
?We came out for the second-half with a go for it attitude and when we went two goals down we only had one way to go and we pushed on and left just the two at the back but what pleases me the most about this team is it is packed with quality and fight.
?We were flat after our match on Tuesday evening playing on a very heavy pitch in Wollongong and it took a lot out of us but shook that off and produced a performance that has got us another three points, even if we did have to work very hard for it.?
In the Grade-20 match Sutherland Sharks defeated Bankstown City 2-1.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 3 (Jablonski 1?, 28?, Price 51?)
Bankstown City Lions 4 (Salameh 27?, Nohra 74?, Severino 80?, Akil 90?)
Saturday, 6th of June, 2009
Seymour Shaw, Miranda
Referee: Peter Vrtkovski
Assistant Referees: Matt Colquhoun and David Lockeridge
Fourth Official: Mark Mitchell
Crowd: 821
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris, 3.Srecko Mitrovic (23.Panni Nikas 84?), 4.Michael Robinson, 6.Chris Price, 7.Jimmy Bakis, 9.Brad Boardman (8.Nathan Ralph 73?), 11.Ben Spruce, 12.Neil Jablonski, 14.Nick Stavroulakis, 15.Michael Katz
Substitutes Not Used: 17.Jordan Nikolovski, 18.Ryan Emerton, 21.Aram Tayebi
Yellow Cards: Bakis 36?
Red Cards: Nil
Bankstown City Lions: 1.Zlatko Joseski; 3.Shane Webb, 4.Brett Studman, 5.Richard Luksic, 6.Peter Tsekenis, 7.Stefanos Liavas, 8.George Nohra, 14.Suad Ameti (99.Chris Godoy-Bascur 56?), 15.Salameh Hussein, 82.Daniel Severino, 29.Hussein Akil
Subs Not Used: 18.Fadi Ghosson, 19.Greg Owens, 13.Mathew Pressello, 20.Andrew Bazi
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
-By Micky Brock
