Suns sink Stallions in midweek fixture
Played due to the original match being washed out during round 4 of the competition, the Suns took advantage of the early goal that saw them collect all three precious points.
The Suns started the match in great fashion as former Stallions attacker Jason Naidovski put pressure on the defence and Stallions ?keeper James Chronopoulos came racing off his line to clear the ball but firing into a defender. The ball then headed towards goal was eventually cleared but after blocking a couple of efforts two minutes later it was Adem Kir who fired home a rasping shot to give the Suns the early lead they deserved for their bright start to the match. It was Kir?s second goal of the season, his first has still been touted as one of the goals of the season after scoring a cracking shot from just past half-way in round one of the NSW Premier League against APIA Leichhardt Tigers.
Marconi came back strongly and a succession of corners by captain Nahuel Arrarte found Keith Shevlin heavily shackled at the back post, but still managed to get a header toward goal that was deflected away for yet another corner that was harmlessly sent wide before reaching the box and the pressure was released.
Suns captain Peter Apolevski lead by example at the back throwing himself into tackles and urging his side on as the Suns slowly fought but Jeffrey Issa was guilty of firing wide and high from outside the box as the Suns pushed forward in search of a second goal with the battle in midfield intensifying as the minutes ticked by and the play became more end to end.
Stallions striker Gosue Sama had an opportunity to attempt to head over Suns ?keeper Dion Shaw in the 18th minute but sent it over the bar with Itsuki Hasegawa firing straight at Chronopoulos at the other end seconds later as the match opened up.
Shevlin was arguably harshly shown a yellow card when in a one-on-one with Shaw, it appeared he was trying to avoid the custodian and was booked for simulation, however he cushioned a header down moments later that was squandered before Chris Nunes, having a busy evening, fired inches over from 25-yards out with thirty one minutes on the clock as the visitors upped the tempo as they tried to regain parity.
It turned into a thrilling half with a high work rate required Arrarte, Andrew Mailer, Nunes and Matthew Gordon showed strongly for Marconi but with Apolevski, Issa, Naidovski and Hasegawa putting in as much effort, the half time whistle blew with the home side one goal to the good in a physically draining forty-five minutes.
Shay Spitz had a very promising opening period and continued that into the second-half with some telling touches and tackles.
From the first whistle the Suns broke with Naidovski holding off a defender and slipping a pass to Sash Tirovski who strode into the box before pulling the ball back for Issa whose first touch let him down as referee Andrew Best blew for a foul and a gilt edged opportunity to extend the lead disappeared,
Tirovski went about business efficiently and almost unnoticed but he was involved in everything good coming from the home side and was instrumental in setting up a chance for Spitz that was blocked in a last ditch effort when a goal seemed on the cards as the match swayed from one attack to another.
However Spitz was unable to pick out any of the three strikers he had inside the box when clean through as Rockdale struggled to find a second and, probably, match winning strike before being replaced by Steven Veleski in the 69th minute.
Marconi had chances on the night but the ball didn?t fall their way and with stout defending making life hard they pushed forward and left themselves exposed at the back.
Both sides made late substitutions but the result on the night was never in doubt although a bizarre caution for Stallions ?keeper transpired when Steven Veleski was in a passive offside position but Chronopoulos ignored the golden rule of playing to the whistle and raced out to gather the ball only to be penalised for intentional handball and entered the note book.
Rockdale coach Lee Sterrey commented that the match was certainly a battle but was delighted with the result.
?It was always going to be a battle out there tonight on a heavy pitch and like us the Marconi flair players were slipping around and couldn?t find their true rhythm.
?But I thought we battled hard and perhaps could have won more convincingly as we had a few decent chances but we knew it was going to be a bit of a slog and an arm wrestle but we got the early goal.
?We had to fight for everything out there and I thought we showed a lot of commitment and that was the difference between us winning tonight and losing the other night against Bonnyrigg where we played with plenty of aggression in the second-half and should have gone on with it.
?I?m really pleased for the boys as they?ve worked really hard and thoroughly deserved their win here this evening.?
Luke Casserly was clearly a disappointed figure as the Stallions coach admitted it wasn?t a great game played by his side.
?It wasn?t our best performance out there tonight and it had nothing to do with work ethic but I thought we made some very ordinary football choices out there on the park.
?We didn?t play to the conditions well and we spoke about a lot of things but still put ourselves under a lot of pressure with poor decisions early on and then copped the goal.
?We tried all sorts of things to get ourselves back into it but they defended very well and in the end we got what we deserved tonight I think.
?We can?t say the ball didn?t go our way as you cannot rely on the odd ball going for you as you have to create your own chances and we didn?t do enough of that here.?
Rockdale City Suns U/20s and Marconi Stallions U/20s played out a scoreless draw.
Match Stats
Rockdale City Suns 1 (Adem Kir 4)
Marconi Stallions 0
Wednesday, 4th May, 2011
Illinden Sports Centre, Bicentennial Park
Referee: Andrew Best
Assistant Referees: Thomas Lee & Jerry Bitas
Fourth Official: Alex Long
Rockdale City Suns : 22.Dion Shaw,13.Giorgio Speranza, 21.Mirko Jurilj, 23.Askin Oygur, 7.Peter Apolevski (C), 11.Adem Kir, 14.Itsuki Hasegawa, 3.Shay Spitz (18.Steven Veleski 69), 5.Jeffrey Issa, 17.Sash Tirovski, 9.Jason Naidovski (12.James Monie 77)
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Ben McNamara, 10.Sash Trajcevski,15.Adrian Karakolevski
Yellow Cards: Issa 37, Oygur 80
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions: 22.James Chronopoulos; 2.Andrew Mailer, 4.Umut Tokdogan (17.Mitchell Mallia 29), 5.Adel El Jamal (5.Matthew Hall 83), 6.Brenton Rhodes, 9.Keith Shevlin, 11.Matthew Gordon, 20.Gosue Sama, 23.Christopher Nunes, 24.Daniel Petrovski, (Timothy McGowan 69) 26.Nahuel Arrarte (c)
Substitutes Not Used: 14.Graziano Trimboli, 21.Nikodin Matic
Yellow Cards: Shevlin 26, Petrovski 48, Nunes 61, Gordon 78, Chronopoulos 86
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 ? Sash Tirovski (RCS)
2 ? Nahuel Arrarte (MS)
1 ? Peter Apolevski (RCS)
-By Micky Brock
