Sharks rampant as Berries crumble at Seymour
The midfielder?s effort curled over the wall on its way to goal to cap an entertaining and resilient performance by the home side at Seymour Shaw Park on a bitterly cold evening.
The Berries came to the Shire with a plan in mind and took the game to the Sharks without producing any real clear cut chances, but attacking and defending with pace and causing a few problems for the Sharks.
Panni Nikas slipped Ben Vidaic through for Sutherland in the 13? minute and a neat turn and shot saw the effort curl just wide as the home-team began to fire up after winning the midfield battle. When George Souris intercepted a pass inside his half then galloped freely forward before attempting an audacious chip from fully 40-yards out that had McLean scrambling, albeit in fairness he had it covered, the signs were there the Berries needed to step up a gear.
Ben Spruce couldn?t quite gain enough purchase with a header from a Bakis free-kick and when the same combination starred again a minute later, it was the Sharks defender who stayed down inside the box with blood pouring from the bridge of his nose that required treatment. The Sharks were down a man for 5? minutes whilst Spruce received treatment. Despite the numerical advantage for those 5? minutes, the Berries couldn?t assert any sustained pressure and manufacture a realistic opening as the final ball and choice of execution lacked purpose.
Bakis found Price inside the penalty-area moments later and it took a full stretch punch from McLean to keep the ball out that Vidaic pounced upon, only for his shot to be cleared off the line as the Berries were clearly on the back foot.
The almost inevitable breakthrough came in the 42? minute when Paul Kohler was slipped into space and he fired a shot across the face of the goalkeeper and slid the ball in off the post to open the scoring for Sutherland.
The lead was doubled in stoppage time when the move of the game saw Blake Powell, who hit a shot moments earlier into the side netting, passed on to Bakis who played it into Nikas and his slide rule pass to Vidaic saw another sneaky twist open up space on the edge of the box for Price to scamper through and fire home.
It left new Berries coach Steve Karavatakis, returning to Seymour Shaw Park for the first time since leaving the Sharks a couple of weeks ago, fuming with his charges and it got no better after the break even though he put on Stefan De Jesus in place of Omar Saadi.
The break failed to spur the visitors on as 3? minutes into the half they were further behind. Nikas played the ball wide to Price on the left and his neat cross left Powell with little more than a tap-in to make it 3-0 on the night.
The rout was complete with the stunning Bakis free-kick as both coach?s rung the changes. Although West Sydney had started brightly they drifted out of the match for little more than 20? minutes and that was enough to see them concede four goals against a fast improving Sharks outfit that are beginning to display the sort of football that won them the Grand Final last season.
Harsh tackles borne of frustration were witnessed and the odd caution dished out by referee Andrew Best, who had a noteworthy game in charge, as he allowed the game to flow and played advantage wherever possible and all that was left was for the Berries to score a consolation goal from Ryo Maekawa.
West Sydney didn?t deserve to get anything from the game but they can thank Hamish McLean and defender Daniel Clifford for keeping the score that low as last-ditch tackles and, particularly, several point-blank saves kept it to a heavy defeat without becoming a true rout.
Understandably Steve Karavatakis was gutted afterwards but a Berries spokesman said:
?We were a match for them for 70? minutes tonight and but for the 10? minute spells either side of the half we could have got something from the game.
?We lost it in midfield and it?s an area we will be looking at.?
The phlegmatic Sharks coach Robbie Stanton wasn?t getting carried away when stating:
?It was a good result for us but we could have won by even more and the pleasing aspect is that we have made a few changes in the last few weeks and it?s starting to come together for us now.
?I?m disappointed we conceded a late goal but we won?t be getting carried away with this result as we really should be picking up three points at home and as we have to face Dandaloo in the Cup on Tuesday night and then Wollongong away next weekend we need to keep our feet on the ground and concentrate on those games.?
In the earlier Grade-20 match, the Berries defeated the Sharks 5-1.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 4 (Paul Kohler 20?, Chris Price 45?, Blake Powell 48?, Jimmy Bakis 54?)
West Sydney Berries 1 (Ryo Maekawa 82?)
Saturday 22nd, May, 2010
Seymour Shaw Park, Miranda
Referee: Andrew Best
Assistant Referees: Daniel Dewhurst and Brett Woodford
Fourth Official: Cameron Bruce
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris, 4.Michael Robinson, 6.Chris Price (16.Jimmy Lawrence 81?), 7.Jimmy Bakis, 8.Blake Powell, 9.Ben Vidaic (10.Steve McConologue 68?), 11.Ben Spruce, 14.Nick Stavroulakis (12.Neil Jablonski 62?), 20.Paul Kohler, 23.Panni Nikas
Substitutes Not Used: 22.Yianni Fragogiannis, 24.Jack Duncan
Yellow Cards: Bakis 57, Stavroulakis
Red Cards: Nil
West Sydney Berries: 1.Hamish McLean; 3.Omar Saadi (12.Stefan De Jesus 46?), 4.Daniel Clifford, 5.Ryan Walsh, 6.Mark Barianis (9.Fadi Ghosson 79?), 7.Peter Peralta, 8.Jesse Pinto, 13.Ryo Maekawa, 16.Kosta Lagoudakis, 17.Sash Tirovski, 19.Dimitri Zakilas (15.Ryan Jones 76?)
Substitutes Not Used: 40.Nestor Tsioutsus, 77.Sam Gordon
Yellow Cards: Lagoudakis 88?
Red Cards: Nil
*Note – Player Ratings will now be hidden until the end of the NSW Premier League season with the overall standings to select the 2010 NSW Premier League All-Stars line-up
-By Micky Brock
