United win hard fought contest against South Coast Wolves
Following the one-minute silence to honour the fallen on this Anzac Day, which was impeccably observed by all present, it was all the Reds.
South Coast should have been ahead in the first 60?? seconds when Cam Littler sent over a cross from the right that was just too high for Mark Picciolini to get a head to, though the ball fell to Sash Petrovski at the far post. The former A-League star managed to round defender Mitchell Speer and cut inside, though sent a delicately curling shot just wide of the goalkeeper?s left-hand upright.
A couple of scares for the Wolves back four ? Alex Mansueto, Jacob Timpano, David Abel and Nick Littler ? that had seen both Glavas and Vidaic run off the line and between the centre-backs went unheeded as the exact scenario occurred to put Glavas through with a delightful chip over the top that was finished in some style in the 6? minute. Glavas cleverly chipped goalkeeper Brody Crane after drawing him off the line for the opening goal.
What followed was a succession of opportunities for the home side with Vidaic coming close 3? minutes later when played in by Elsid Barkhousir only to see the effort slip past the post before South Coast began to awaken from their slumber.
Sydney United made a change in the 15? minute when Mitch Long was replaced by Shane Lyons after Cam Littler had been enjoying a little too much freedom down the right flank.
South Coast found themselves two down with a similar move to the first after good work from the left saw Ante Tomic square the ball to Lyons who in turn slipped it across the face for the unmarked Vidaic to side foot home with the simplest of ease.
Mark Rudan marshalled the back line with calm efficiency and never looked flustered at any point to bolster a defence that at times looked less than secure last season.
Glavas skewed a glorious effort wide on the volley from a Tomic cross and another effort went begging when Tomic, Vidaic and Barkhousir combined to squander that opportunity.
With the Wolves reduced to long-range efforts things were not looking good for the visitors who had a couple of chances they should have put away but without success. Instead, they rallied toward the end of the half and a contender for goal of the season went begging when Lyons gave the ball away to Petrovski seemingly in a non-threatening area only for the visiting striker to spot Janjetovic off his line and attempt an audacious chip from fully 35-yeards out that only narrowly went wide of the mark.
Jake Duczynski replaced Samet Kaynak for the Wolves at the start of the second period and it was a different side after the restart after some strong words from coach Trevor Morgan at the interval. The visitors however could have fallen further behind when Barkhousir volleyed wide in the opening minutes and had Picciolini not put his point-blank header straight at Janjetovic for the South Coast side to reduce the deficit it may have been very different.
Vidaic had another glorious chance when put clean through but dragged his shot
Janjetovic was called into action shortly after, though he was never found wanting and made a couple of full stretch saves down low turning one around the post late on after being unsighted when the shot was fired in.
It appeared both sides were fortunate to finish with a full complement of players when Tomic and Petrovski were seen to wrestle each other to the ground with what appeared to be a punch thrown in the melee that may just have been the tangle of arms, but as both sets of players came rushing in it looked as though a full-blown stoush was imminent. Good refereeing from Adam Susz diffused the situation and a calm head gave cautions to both protagonists with Jean-Paul De Marigny almost immediately replacing Tomic with Petar Markovic in a wise move according to the home supporters.
Petrovski was roundly booed for the remainder of the match, as you would expect, but he handled himself with aplomb under severe provocation from the crowd, a man of his experience is unlikely to be swayed from the objective by the nay sayer?s, and was unlucky not to score.
South Coast rallied well during the second period and had it not been for the first-half errors a draw would have been justified, but as their profligacy in front of goal continued it was a case of too little too late and try as they might they could not obtain a consolation goal for their troubles.
Visiting coach Trevor Morgan said afterwards:
?We were not playing well in the first-half and didn?t contain their strikers and kept falling to the ball over the top.
?We tightened up after the break and had maybe three or four sitters that we didn?t take but we know where we went wrong today and it?s something we are working on.
?United took their chances well but we could have taken something from the game and the guys will need to learn from this,? he concluded.
Jean-Paul DeMarigny was pleased with the points when saying:
?Our main asset is that we are strong in the attacking third although we are strong across the park, and our pace is going to worry defences.
?I was very happy with our first-half performance and thought we should have had another goal to finish it off the game but in the second I don?t think our midfield got close enough to them and we tended to switch off a little bit.
?I thought our passing game, particularly after the break, could have been better and our midfielders could have denied them the space so we made it a little bit difficult for ourselves but we are happy with the result in a hard fought game.?
The Grade-20 encounter finished with Sydney United going down to South Coast Wolves 1-4 with Simonovski netting a hat-trick for the visitors.
Match Stats
Sydney United 2 (Glavas 6?, Vidaic 21?)
South Coast Wolves 0
Monday 25th April, 2011
Sydney United Sports Centre, Edensor Park
Referee: Adam Susz
Assistant Referees: Sarah Ho and Steven Nguyen
Fourth Official: Michael Weiner
Sydney United: 1.Vedran Janjetovic; 3.Mitchell Speers, 5.Damon Collina, 9.Elsid Barkhousir, 10.Steve Hayes, 11.Luka Glavas, 13.Ben Vidaic,19.Mitchell Thompson (8.Shane Lyons 15), 21.Mark Rudan (4.Michael Cindric 76), 23.Ivo Bosnar, 29.Ante Tomic (14.Petar Markovic 70)
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Ryan Novall, 18.Daniel Rezo, 17. Tom Cirjak
Yellow Cards: Tomic 66?
Red Cards: Nil
South Coast Wolves: 1.Brody Crane (C); 2.Alex Mansueto, 3.David Abel, 4.Jacob Timpano, 5.Nick Littler, 6.Lawrence Drake, 7.Samet Kaynak (11.Chris Nathaniel 46), 8.Andres Gomez, 9.Mark Picciolini, 10.Sasho Petrovski, 14.Cam Littler (14.Jake Duczynski 74)
Substitutes Not Used: 12.Jack Keating, 21.Hayden Durose
Yellow Cards: Drake 25?, N.Littler 32?, Petrovski 66?
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Luka Glavas (SU)
2 ? Steve Hayes (SU)
1 ? Ivo Bosnar (SU)
-By MickyBrock
