Sydney United defeat Stallions in derby clash at Fairfield

Marconi were dealt an early blow with former Manly United midfielder Andrew Mailer failing a fitness test prior to kick off, replaced by skilful youngster Mitchell Mallia in the starting eleven.
The first real chance of the match fell to Mallia after finding room inside the penalty-area only to fire his shot past the inside post. The miss was significant, as the turn of possession allowed Sydney United to quickly break from the goal kick. Forward Elsid Barkhousir found room on the right hand side and provided a dangerous cross inside the box. Ante Tomic pounced on the loose ball after the cross initially eluded both defence and attack and buried a beautiful low volley past Stallions shot-stopper James Chronopoulos.
The Stallions immediately created a chance to pull level as Sean O?Connell, similarly to the early Mallia chance, found room inside the penalty-area only to drag his shot wide.
Sydney United seemed to be enjoying playing on the counter, giving the Stallions all sorts of problems when possession was turned over cheaply. Tomic in particular, who almost doubled his goal scoring tally, dragged his 25-yard shot wide of Chronopoulos? post.
New signing Matthew Mayora was always in the thick of the action in the final third for Marconi and after a nice one-two with Keith Shevlin almost brought the match back to level terms but was foiled by a smart Vedran Janjetovic save.
Mayora soon became the centre of some unwanted attention after a poor challenge on Janjetovic. Diving in after a poor touch, the forward was lucky in the eyes of many in the Stadium to only see yellow.
Marconi seemed to be frustrated, and in search of an equaliser seemed to leave space in the midfield and defence. A smart Tomic chip over the defence found Luka Glavas all alone in the box, though his shot was well blocked.
The Stallions were living dangerously with the resulting corner finding a bustling Michael Cindric whose header was cleared off the line.
Tomic was proving to be a real handful and after another cheap turnover in midfield, Tomic broke and beat four Marconi players only to see his shot blocked by Adel El Jamal.
The second-half opened with Glavas spurning an excellent opportunity to double United?s lead after a wonderful diagonal ball by Tomic found the forward on the chest, and after a second touch to deceive the defender, sprayed his shot over the bar.
United again launched an attack and this time thought they had doubled the lead through Ben Vidaic, only to be denied by the assistant linesman. Steve Hayes? low drive was parried by Chronopoulos only as far as Vidaic, however the forward was in a clear offside position.
Mayora tried to inspire the Stallions and created a number of chances including an audacious chip from outside the penalty-area which just sailed over the crossbar.
Hayes took over from Tomic?s lead in midfield and began to pull the strings. The midfielder split the Marconi defence with a lovely ball which saw Vidaic one-on-one with Chronopoulos, however a poor touch gave El Jamal enough time to slide in cover defence.
Sydney United had another goal disallowed for offside, this time quite controversially. A defensive mix-up by the Stallions saw a clearance deflected off forward Elsid Barkhousir towards goal. As the ball slid across the face of goal Glavas kept the ball in play and crossed in from the touch line for Barkhousir to tap in, however the assistant linesman again denied United.
Marconi?s best chance to equalise fell to Mayora 15? minutes out from full-time. Nahuel Arrarte played Mayora in one-on-one with Janjetovic, though Mayora was denied by a spectacular save.
As Marconi continued to press forward, the final significant chance of the match fell to substitute Tim McGowan. The midfielder received a pass from Mayora just outside the box and after a lovely touch to beat Damon Collina could only squeeze his shot wide.
The match did end on a sour note for the Stallions with Chris Nunes substituted after seemingly being concussed after a challenge with Sydney United substitute Tomislav Mijic.
Stallions Captain Nahuel Arrarte, whilst disappointed by the result, acknowledged the team is still gelling and has much to improve upon:
?We?ve picked up the intensity from last week and we?re getting better and better but at the end of the day you?ve got to get results.
?We could have won the game but not played well, which I would have taken, but we will look to bounce back next week.?
Arrarte was nevertheless encouraged by the performance of new signing Matthew Mayora despite an obviously frustrating night for the striker:
?He [Mayora] was a bit unlucky, he worked hard, obviously he had a few opportunities but that happens so you have to take the positives out of the game and the good thing was that he did create a few opportunities.
?That?s football, but the main thing is he kept going and was consistent.?
Sydney United boss Jean Paul De Marigny was glad to get the first win under the belt especially against tough opposition away from home:
?The boy?s were slightly better than last week, regardless I?m happy to get our first win… I think we?re progressing quite well.
?I thought we were turning the ball too often, we were winning the ball then turning it over.
?We?ve got to be able to retain possession for longer periods of time and if we can do that we can be even more dangerous.?
De Marigny was full of praise for young midfielder Ante Tomic on his return for the reds:
?He?s just getting stronger and stronger and becoming a lot more effective.
?He hasn?t played football for twelve months, we don?t expect miracles but he?s on his way up.?
When asked about how far both Ufuk Talay and Mark Rudan were away from being fully fit, De Marigny was optimistic on their return:
?I think both of the boys are 2-3 weeks away, they need to get a bit sharper.?

In the U20’s, Marconi Stallions ran out 3-1 winners…
Match Stats
Marconi Stallions 0
Sydney United 1 (Ante Tomic 4?)
Saturday 3rd April, 2011
Marconi Stadium, Bossley Park
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Christian Mehl and Mike Robertson
Fourth Official: Thomas Klein

Crowd: 1,200
Marconi Stallions: 22.James Chronopoulos; 4.Umut Tokdogan, 5.Adel El Jamal, 8.Sean O?Connell, 9.Keith Shevlin (20.Giosue Sama 67?), 11.Matthew Gordon, 15.Matthew Mayora, 17. Mitchell Mallia (7.Timothy McGowan 67?), 23.Chris Nunes (6.Brenton Rhodes 86?), 25.Daniel Petrovski, 26.Nahuel Arrarte.
Substitutes Not Used: 12.Graziano Trimboli, 21.Nikodin Matic
Yellow Cards: Matthew Mayora 21?, Umut Tokdogan 79?
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney United: 1.Vedran Janjetovic; 3.Mitchell Speers, 4.Michael Cindric, 5.Damon Collina, 9.Elsid Barkhousir (14.Petar Markovic 88?), 10.Steve Hayes, 11.Luka Glavas, 13.Ben Vidaic, 19.Mitchell Thompson (38.Tomislav Mijic 77?), 23.Ivo Bosnar, 29.Ante Tomic (15.Ufuk Talay 77?)
Substitutes Not Used: 18. Daniel Rezo, 20. Ryan Norval
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Ante Tomic (SU)
2 ? Steve Hayes (SU)
1 ? Nahuel Arrarte (MS)
-By Bruce Da Silva