Sydney United spoil Manly United?s party at Cromer
Heading into the clash, Manly were sitting third on the congested ladder and knew a win against the under strength Reds would give them two bites at the cherry come the TeleChoice Championship Series.
But Ante Milicic?s men were clinical early on and they were rewarded with a two goal lead inside the first 20? minutes.
Luka Glavas, who in recent years has been a regular on the scoresheet against the northern beaches outfit, almost opened the scoring after pouncing onto a ball not cleared by Joel Grenell.
The former Perth Glory and Sydney FC striker hammered a rocket against the crossbar which ex-Socceroo David Zdrilic pounced on, heading home into an empty net with just 9? minutes gone.
8? minutes later Glavas did trouble the scorers after he beat Manly custodian Brad Swancott with a well taken volley that Spencer Prior will have nightmares about.
A route one goal-kick from Michael Frost saw Glavas embarrass Prior for pace before unleashing a sublime effort from 18-yards to double the Reds advantage.
Manly came out in a determined mood in the second half, no doubt the words from their irate coach Phil Moss still ringing in their ears.
Their optimism increased on 62? minutes when stand-in skipper Damon Collina was given an early shower after collecting two yellow cards in the space of seven minutes.
The fiery defender reacted to an innocuous challenge on a team-mate after 55? minutes before foolishly playing a ball out of play with his hand, giving referee Gerard Parsons no choice but to hand the home team a numerical advantage.
The boys in blue continued to press and were rewarded on 76? minutes when substitute Jamie Garside halved the deficit after finishing an inch perfect through ball from Scott Thomas.
However the vocal supporters in the Lucas Neill were groaning just sixty seconds later when Glavas grabbed his second, audaciously lobbing Swancott from the edge of the area to end the contest.
Craig Midgley pulled one back to add some respectability deep into injury time, but a draw would have been harsh on Sydney United, who now enjoy a two week break with the TigerTurf Final this Saturday and a first round bye in the TeleChoice Championship Series.
Milicic stated he was happy with the effort of his troops, but was ?disappointed? with the lack of discipline from Collina.
?It was important we put in a good performance with the break we now have,? he said.
?We had a good start and didn?t panic, we also managed to surpass Wollongong and Sutherland?s points total from last year, which was a goal of ours.
?The send-off was unfortunate, Damon is a vital part of our team and I am disappointed with what happened.”
Moss summed up the afternoon simply, describing the 90 minutes as a ?bad day at the office.?
?You can?t give a team like them (Sydney United) a two goal start,? he said.
?To the boys? credit they kept pushing and created a few chances, it just wasn’t our day.
?We like to do things the hard way so fifth on the table suits us perfectly.?
Match Stats
Manly United 2 (Jamie Garside 76?, Craig Midgley 90?)
Sydney United 3 (David Zdrilic 9?, Luka Glavas 17?, 77?)
Sunday August 9, 2009
Referee: Gerard Parsons
Assistant Referees: Daniel Dewhurst, Christian Mehl
4th Official: Nicholas Tragoustis
Manly United: 1.Brad SWANCOTT, 3.Andrew MAILER, 4.Spencer PRIOR (11.Craig MIDGLEY 56?) 5.Joel GRENELL, (2.Sean BOWDEN 26?) 6.Scott THOMAS, 7.Ash RYAN, 8.Michael LLOYD-GRREN, 10. Josh SAMA, 15. Keith SHEVLIN (12.Jamie GARSIDE 70?) 16.Joey SCHIRRIPA, 24.Brad GROVES
Substitutes not used: 41.Ben McNAMARA, 19.Luke READING
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil
Sydney United: 20.Michael FROST, 45.Sam MUNRO, 5.Damon COLLINA, 2.Ricky PERINICH, 19.Mitchell THOMPSON, 15.Lisandro BERBIS, 24.Andrija PETKOVIC, 3.Roger GALAYINI, (21.Dominic ROSSI 75?) 14.Petar MARKOVIC, (22.Daniel REZO 82?) 9.David ZDRILIC, 11.Luka GLAVAS
Substitutes not used: 30.Aaron RIGATO
Yellow cards: Damon COLLINA 55?
Red cards: Damon COLLINA 62?
-By Andrew Prentice
