Sharks attack Wolves for first victory in 2010
The Wolves started brightly, and their passing play was a delight to watch, and provided evidence this side will without doubt climb the ladder as the season progresses. Their enterprising play was pretty to watch but the final ball was wayward and something that needs to be worked on.
Greg Valic came close to giving the visitors the lead in the 3? minute when connecting sweetly with a Tayfun Buyukkopru corner, though the volley slipped harmlessly over the bar as they announced their intentions early on. Moments later though, the Wolves were close to going behind when a last ditch block by Valic, making good ground to retrieve the situation, after Blake Powell beat both Valic and Dave Able before taking one touch too many.
The impressive Huseyin Jasli copped an elbow in the early exchanges and was ordered from the field to get his head bandaged and then to change his shirt leaving the Sharks a man down for almost 5? minutes which, given the current injury crisis at the club, had the fans fearful.
Robbie Stanton?s men held on, and after coming back on, Jasli was in the thick of the action when he got past the last line of defence with some clever footwork and lobbed the advancing Brody Crane in the Wolves net; the effort snuck agonisingly wide of the upright as the match remained goal-less.
South Coast?s response was quick when Buyukkopru flashed a shot goal ward that Nathan Denham had to be smartly down to save at the second attempt from a Ken Chun lay-off, and perhaps the visitors should have taken the lead when getting into good positions although scuffed shots seemed to be the order of the night.
However, midway through the half Sutherland managed to break the deadlock when Chris Price played through Yanni Fragogiannis on the right and his deep cross to the back stick found Powell to head for the lead, as Valic lost his man.
The Sharks held on to their lead until the break to go into the sheds with the one-goal advantage.
Wolves boss Trevor Morgan was forced to make a change during the interval, moving Tynan Diaz, one of their better performers during the opening 45? minutes, to right back to bring on Alex Mansueto in place of Kieran Deane.
Nicolas McInerney was next to have Denham saving down low but a George Souris inspired move was to give the Sharks a two-goal break. Winning the ball inside the Wolves half saw a beautifully weighted pass forward to Jasli who slipped past one defender, rounded the goalkeeper and unselfishly square-cut the ball to Price who neatly side-footed the ball into the top corner to pile the pressure on to the visiting team to go for broke.
Stephen McConologue came on and almost found his first strike of the season in the closing stages of the match after going one-on-one with the goalkeeper and then sending his shot into the side netting from an acute angle. At the other end, Wolves substitute Andres Gomez almost scored a late consolation goal when his side-foot effort crept the wrong side of the post.
Michael Robinson was forced into several last ditch tackles and blocks to deny the Wolves scoring opportunities and along with Denham can certainly be thanked for keeping the visitors at bay, especially when heads began to drop and coach Trevor Morgan rang the changes as the neat inter-passing side of the first 45? minutes became a shadow of itself at times.
The Wolves did allow the Sharks far too much time to pass the ball about in midfield at times and offered little in desperation, eagerness or determination to salvage anything from the game, not something Morgan was pleased about after the match:
?It?s very frustrating at times and this is one of the games.
?We were nearly always off the pace in second ball situations and didn?t show enough awareness at times in broken play and they (Sharks) were first to the ball nearly 100% of the time, though at no point did I think we were outplayed during the match and probably deserved something from it.
?When you look at our first three games it has been like playing Man City (Bonnyrigg), Man United (Marconi) and Arsenal (Sharks) in terms of playing staff stability and we?re off to Chelsea (Sydney Utd) next week so it doesn?t get any easier although I think we?ve shown enough in these games to have collected points out of them, even though we need to show more fight when it?s needed and to get the final ball into the box far better than we have done tonight.
?We have the ability and ideas and we will surprise a few people this year however, we need to produce the end product.
?In saying this, I will not change the system we are playing or the style because we know it can and will be effective when everyone is on the same page.?
Robbie Stanton was relieved with the Sharks collecting their first win of the season:
?That was a hard game and I knew it would be from the feedback I have received from their first two matches and the footage I have seen from them but I feel we showed good determination tonight and that got us over the line in the end.
?We scrambled well and hassled them on the ball and it was probably a fair result as we had the better of the opportunities tonight so I will happily take the 3-points and move on from here.?
In the grade-20 division, Sutherland Sharks and South Coast Wolves played out an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 2 (Powell 28?, Price 50?)
South Coast Wolves 0
Saturday 13th March, 2010
Seymour Shaw Park
Referee: Khodr Yaghi
Assistant Referees: Gareth Askham and Adam Coombes
Fourth Official: Nick Tragoustis
Crowd: 550 (approx)
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris, 4.Michael Robinson, 6.Chris Price, 8.Blake Powell (3. Kyle Stuart), 11.Ben Spruce, 12.Neil Jablonski, 14.Nick Stavroulakis, 16.James Lawrence, 22.Yianni Fragogiannis, 31.Huseyin Jasli (10.Stephen McConologue 74?)
Substitutes Not Used: 24.Jack Duncan, 27.Deklan Gilmartin, 36.Tyson Rhodes
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
South Coast Wolves: 1.Brody Crane; 2.Alex Mansueto (16.Kieran Deane 46?), 3.Greg Valic (14.Andres Gomez 69?), 4.Dave Abel, 5.Nicholas McInerney, 6.Lisandro Berbis, 8.Tayfun Buyukkopru, 10.Jason Trifrio, 11.Andrew Paine, 17.Tynan Diaz, 19.Ken Chun (7.Andrew Keep 57?)
Substitutes Not Used: 15.Chris Nathaniel, 20.Bryce Daenell
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Chris Price (SS)
2 ? Michael Robinson (SS)
1 ? Andrew Paine (SCW)
-By Micky Brock
