Bulls now lead State League Division Two
The Bulls are equal-first on points with Luddenham, who disposed of Gazy Lansvale 3-1. Defending champions Wanderers and Hurstville are just off the minor premiership pace after respective 1-0 wins over Belmore and Springwood, another Roosters loss (an astounding 3-0 victory to Hawkesbury) has them sitting precariously on the edge of the top-five after leading the competition for more than three months, while Prospect are poised a point behind the top-five following their astonishing 4-0 win over Bathurst.
The points table shows the Bulls (29), Luddenham (29), Wanderers (27), Hurstville (27), Roosters (25), Prospect (24), Belmore (23), Bathurst (22) and Springwood (22). Gazy (17) is next, then Hawkesbury (13) and Hakoah (8).
On the goalscoring front with six rounds to go:
10 goals: Khaled Elkerhani (Fairfield)
9: Nirian Kanoun (Fairfield), Michael Di Meglio (Hurstville), Jarred Portegies (Bathurst).
8: Ercan Topal (Roosters), Elias Navarrete (Wanderers), Huso Merdanovic (Gazy)
7: Michael Wood (Luddenham), Paul Curjak (Prospect), Michael Amed (Gazy)
6: George Iliopoulos (Belmore)
5: Mauricio Sanchez (Wanderers), Emmanuel Papageorgiou (Hurstville), Angelo Vagenas (Hurstville), Luis Freitas (Prospect), Rob Portelli (Prospect), James Christie (Bathurst), Kelston George (Hawkesbury), Josh Morgenstern (Hakoah)
Prospect takes gold from Bathurst
Prospect United returned to their winning ways with a convincing 4-0 win over Bathurst ?75 at William Lawson Reserve on Saturday night. After a shaky month of results (one win in six weeks), Prospect turned on the afterburners against Bathurst, and a three-goal burst from Paul Curjak, Adrian Jennings and Rob Portelli just before halftime killed the game off as a contest.
Three goals down, Bathurst threw a bit more into the game in the second half without reward, but Prospect managed to find a fourth ? a second to Portelli ? to round out a 4-0 scoreline and keep their finals aspects going.
United coach Tony Caruso said it was a good win. ?It was one of those games where everything we touched turned to gold,? he said. ?The results haven?t been the greatest in the last month, but we had still been playing consistently well. Last night we had our chances and put them in.?
Bathurst coach Mark Rooke said his side was simply outplayed. ?They were better than us on the night; they wanted more than we did,? he said. ?We had our half-chances but we seemed to be half a step away from everything on the night. All credit to Prospect.?
Hurstville dismiss Springwood
Hurstville City Minotaurs are back on track after holding off a lacklustre Springwood United 1-0 at Belmore Sports Ground on Sunday afternoon to stay two points behind top spot. An early Michael Di Meglio goal proved decisive after the talented forward latched onto a neat pass and caught the United defence napping, beating the keeper five minutes into the match. The home side hung on for the win.
Hurstville general Peter Sarikakis was delighted with the football played by his team. ?We had plenty of possession in the first half and to only come into halftime 1-0 up was not convincing. The second half they attacked a bit more, but I thought we always had control of the game,? he said. ?The young kids [in the Minotaurs] are playing some good football, but we must make sure to take our chances when they come.?
It was Hurstville?s third victory on the trot after going five rounds without a win, and they play the bottom four teams in their run home to the post-season. They might have undergone plenty of personnel changes over the past couple of months, but Sarikakis was a genius for keeping Di Meglio. His ninth goal of the season also kept his ?blessed? club run intact ? the Minotaurs have won all eight games he has scored in this season.
Springwood coach Errol Warwick-Day had a testing week, a lonely point against Hakoah on Saturday the only benefit from playing three games in five days. United were pole-axed 3-0 by new league leaders Fairfield Bulls on Wednesday and drew 1-1 with Hakoah before suffering the Hurstville defeat. Springwood have only registered two wins from their last nine fixtures.
?It?s been a hard week. To play three games and not be very successful made it difficult,? he said. ?Our inability to finish in front of goal [15 goals from 16 games, four goals in their last seven matches] is really costing us. We have had tons of chances and dominated games in big patches, but we?re not scoring goals.?
Wanderers displace Belmore
Wanderers continued their merry march towards back-to-back titles by overcoming Belmore Hercules 1-0 in a thriller at Blick Oval on Sunday afternoon. Both teams had plenty of chances to score but a Mauricio Sanchez goal for the Wanderers (from a free-kick after the Hercules keeper handled a back-pass) proved to be the difference, although Belmore?s George Iliopoulos missed a penalty kick near the end of the game that would have tied the scores up.
The win ? their fourth in five weeks after managing just four successes from the opening 11 rounds ? pushed the Wanderers into equal-third spot with Hurstville on the ladder. Coach Walter Alvarez was pleased to get the result but had his own thoughts on the competition?s closeness. ?It?s certainly good for the outsider but it puts a lot of pressure on the coaches and teams to keep on winning,? he said.
Belmore, however, incurred their second successive loss after a six-week unbeaten run to stay just outside the top-five. Hercules coach Ernesto Meduri enjoyed the football but not the result. ?The game was fantastic, very close, and the Wanderers played very well for the win,? he said.
Luddenham blindside Gazy
An impressive Luddenham United steamrolled Gazy Lansvale 3-1 at Cherrybrook Park on Sunday afternoon to stay on top of the division two perch, situated just behind Fairfield Bulls on goal difference alone. All three Luddenham goals came from set pieces, Ivan Buzina nodding home a Steve Andrews free-kick on 20-minutes to give the visitors the lead. But Gazy got back into it before halftime courtesy of a 40th-minute equaliser from Huso Merdanovic, who had beaten United?s offside trap.
The second half was all Luddenham as Buzina produced a mirror of his first half effort and headed in following another free-kick, and he razzled it up with 20 minutes to go, heading a Chris Vella free-kick back across goal for Peter Farac to tap in to make it 3-1.
United coach Andrew Montgomery called the win solid. ?We always looked comfortable,? he said. ?It was good to get a win like that, especially with the table as close as it is. You really can?t rely on anyone else; you just have to keep on winning.?
Bulls beat Hakoah
Fairfield Bulls notched up their sixth victory in a row with a narrow 2-1 win over Hakoah at Wentworth Park on Sunday afternoon and, coupled with a 3-0 midweek win over Springwood, have taken the top of the leaderboard. But they didn?t have it all their own way, with Hakoah putting up a bit of a fight after their own midweek success against Springwood, a 1-1 draw.
Following a scoreless first half the game ignited when Bulls strike force Khaled Elkerhani and Nirian Kanoun poached good goals, Elkerhani chasing down a long ball from his own keeper to beat the Hakoah goalie and Kanoun smashing one in from the edge of the box, to give Fairfield a 2-0 advantage. A foul inside the box gifted Hakoah a penalty and Mark Robertson halved the lead to make it a very interesting final 10 minutes, but Fairfield held on to keep their pole position.
Bulls coach Michael Mamoo said it wasn?t a good win but the result was effective. ?It wasn?t tidy and we were a little shaky at the end, but we?ll take the three points,? he said. ?Six wins in a row has got us there [to the top], but the competition is so tight that one win or loss and you could be in or out of the top-five. I?ve coached and played for many years and this has got to be the closest competition I?ve ever seen.?
It certainly has been an amazing ride for Fairfield, who had to endure five draws from their first eight games before running rampant since, winning seven of their last eight performances. And their up-front assassins Elkerhani and Kanoun have plenty to do with it, their respective 10th and ninth goals of the season against Hakoah creating plenty of headaches for opposition defences.
For Hakoah their season may as well start now. ?We?re just starting to get players back now, so we?re getting stronger and stronger, just at the wrong end of the competition,? he said. ?We?ve only had our first 11 on the park once, when we beat Gazy 5-0. The aim is to get off the bottom of the table and I believe we can do that.?
Hawkesbury peck Roosters
It had been brewing for quite a while and it was a weakened Roosters FC that bore the brunt of a Hawkesbury City onslaught, the competition?s under-achievers delighting in a 3-0 romp at Lidcombe Oval on Sunday afternoon. And they did it with a side that was even younger in average age than last week?s, grade-20 goalkeeper Robbie O?Connor keeping a clean sheet in his first grade debut, while the goalscorers were Robert Carle, Michael McCrory (his first for the season) and Paul Cooper..
Both teams were stretched for players, but City coach Gary Lewis praised his team?s commitment and desire in gaining their first road victory of the year. ?I told you last week was youngest team I had had on the paddock, well this one was even younger,? he said. ?We had a few more out today and had to blood a few more youngsters, but everybody stepped up.?
?The Roosters were very much understength, but I don?t think we allowed them to play the way they would have wanted to and we got into a rhythm. You couldn?t pick a man of the match; everybody backed each other up and, today, we just clicked. The spirit has always been there throughout the season. Now the challenge is to get as many points as possible and cause a few nightmares for the teams ahead of us. We want to go down fighting and we definitely don?t want that wooden spoon.?
But what on earth has happened to the Roosters? They were red-hot early on, winning six of eight games to lead the competition after eight rounds, scoring almost three goals a match. They have won just once in eight games since, including four losses in their last five outings, scoring a meager eight goals in the process. They will need to find their mojo soon if they are to keep their top-five place let alone contest well in the finals.
– Daniel de Nardi
