Sharks singing in the rain following win over Bankstown
On a night better suited to ducks than a football match, strikers Sam Awad and Matt Bailey netted the second-half goals to secure the three-points, despite David Gardiner momentarily restoring parity at 1-1.
Bankstown came and strung five across the back line that stifled much of the Sharks thrusting play and it wasn?t until the 22? minute that a clear cut opportunity presented itself to the home side. Nick Tsattalios crossed for Awad but his header thundered off the base of the goalkeeper?s right-hand upright and away to safety.
The visitors had their first real sight of goal 6? minutes later from long-range as Shannon Burgin fired in a skiddy shot comfortably held in the greasy conditions by Nathan Denham.
Indeed, neither goalkeeper had too much to do in the opening 45? minutes although Tsattalios should have given the home side the lead with half an hour played when playing a delightful one-two with Panni Nikas that set him clear of the defence. Tsattalios? shot though was skewed wide of goal as the best chance of the half went begging.
Jimmy Bakis, Michael Katz and Nick Stavroulakis combined shortly after for another forward foray, only for Steve Krsteski to clear the danger, leaving the Sharks fans to think this night in the teeming rain was not to be theirs.
Daniel Slaveski looked strong on the Lions? left and created one or two problems for the Sharks early on, but with both Burgin and Bakis shown yellow cards in separate incidents before the half-time whistle the score board remained untroubled as the weary players trooped off.
Omar Saadi replaced Peter Peralta immediately upon the resumption as Bankstown started to believe they had weathered the storm and could possibly collect all three-points but it was a short-lived dream as Sutherland turned the screws and began to stamp their authority on the match when Bakis tried an audacious lob from fully 35-yards out that had Zlatko Joseski back-peddling to collect.
However, the next time the Lions captain was to touch the ball was when picking it out of the net with Bakis again involved with a beautiful curling pass around the defence that Awad was able to run on to at pace before skinning his marker and slotting home in some style with his right foot to give Sutherland the lead. Awad was missing from the Sharks lineup during their round 5 clash against the APIA Leichhardt Tigers due to being overseas, his presence in the side on Saturday was seen as a mega plus for the home side.
Barely 2? minutes later and again Sutherland should have found the target when their acute passing game saw Chris Price set up Matt Bailey – but his shot was straight into Awad who couldn?t get out of the way quickly enough.
Bankstown were left ruing their luck when Aman Hadid had an effort cannon off the post after a goalmouth scramble before Denham was forced into a full length left-handed save before the ball fell to Chris Petrovski to skew wide.
Although Bankstown did regain parity in somewhat unlikely circumstances when Petrovski sent a free-kick, given away by Nikas, from just inside the half into the mix to be met by the head of David Gardiner, the Sharks needed only 2? minutes to restore their one-goal lead.
Katz put the ball to Awad who showed tremendous vision to play in Tsattalios charging down the left flank, and his pinpoint cross was headed home by Bailey for his sixth goal of the season.
It seemed to knock the fight out of the visitors, and although they kept plugging away, they left themselves exposed and stretched at the back which should have cost them dearly in the latter stages.
Bankstown?s last hurrah came in the 83? minute when a 35-yard Freddie Graham shot stung the hands of Denham who opted to bat the ball down rather than attempt to catch it in the conditions and for the remainder of the game it was all one-way traffic.
Sharks coach Robbie Stanton commented afterwards:
?I wasn?t happy with our first-half performance and we were below par and didn?t get to grips with their game plan and it was probably my fault, I didn?t change things sooner than at half-time.
?As a team we have so much more to give and I don?t say that to belittle any side in the NSW Premier League but I know this side is capable of so much more and that?s because we set high standards for ourselves and we haven?t reached them yet.
?We had many clear cut chances to wrap up the game more comfortably and didn?t take them and that is something we cannot always do as we will play better this season and get nothing from the game and you cannot blame the weather for some of those misses.
?It was tough tonight but we tinkered with the system at half-time, made a couple of minor adjustments and it got us home in the end.
Bankstown City coach Blagoja Kuleski was visibly disappointed with the result:
?I am disappointed with the result tonight.
?Not because we lost, because Sutherland are a strong team, but because when we conceded the second goal the players heads dropped.
?It?s a mental thing we have to overcome because we can be as good as the best teams if we have the right attitude and tonight that was lacking.
?I think we are not far off our best form but we are a new team that hasn?t played many matches together so we will improve and we can make to Top Five, I think.?
Sutherland Sharks were triumphant in the Grade-20 fixture, defeating Bankstown City 2-0.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 2 (Awad 53?, Bailey 65?)
Bankstown City 1 (Gardiner 63?)
Saturday 30th April 2011
Seymour Shaw Football Stadium, Miranda
Referee: Kurt Ahms
Assistant Referees: Allyson Flynn and Bret Woodford
Fourth Official: Nathan Roberts
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris (C), 6.Sam Awad (20.Paul Kohler 82?), 7.Jimmy Bakis, 8.Chris Price,10.Matt Bailey,12.Hayden Morton,14.Nick Stavroulakis, 15.Michael Katz, 23.Panni Nikas, 33.Nick Tsattalios (4.Yianni Fragogiannis 88?)
Substitutes Not Used: 53.Lachlan Cahill, 19.Huseyin Jasli, 22.Jack Duncan
Yellow Cards: Bakis 40?, Nikas 62?
Red Cards: Nil
Bankstown City: 1.Zlatkjo Joseski; 3.Chris Petrovski, 5.David Gardiner, 6.Daniel Slaveski (14.Suad Ameti 58?), 7.Stefanos Liavas, 8.Peter Peralta (4.Blaz Dejanovski 46?), 9.Shannon Burgin, 10.Aman Hadid, 11.Freddie Graham, 16.Steven Bozinovski, 17.Steve Krsteski
Substitutes Not Used: 2.Omar Saadi,12.Daniel Zeleny, G/K.Jordan Nikolovski
Yellow Cards: Burgin 37?
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Sam Awad (SS)
2 ? George Souris (SS)
1 ? Matt Bailey (SS)
-By Micky Brock
