Waratah Cup Round 4: Souris sees red as Eagles soar in Cup
Sutherland had the better of the start when Hayden Morton and Huseyin Jasli combined to put Todd Halloran into space that only a last ditch tackle prevented the visitors creating the overlap. Jasli hoever, volleyed the resultant corner straight into the chest of a defender and the opportunity went begging, something they would rue greatly at the end of the game and when Chris Price was put through moments later to put is shot narrowly wide of the far post.
Moments later the Sharks could have found themselves two up inside 5? minutes.
Parramatta had their first chance 6? minutes later when the tricky Bryan Soane again attacked down the right flank and sent over an inch perfect cross for Almir Dizdaric who headed wide when he should have done better in a central position.
Sutherland went down the other end they were awarded a free-kick that Fragogiannis fired into the wall that rebounded to the impressive Jasli who volleyed inches over as Sutherland started to find their range.
Jonathan Castano-Acero was next to show for the Eagles but he too fired over after good work from captain Kutaiba Elrich but again Sutherland went straight down the other end. Price beat the offside trap he put the ball through for Jasli who in turn went past Thomas Wilson and put in a cross at pace that ?keeper Tomislav Romic had to beat away. The goalkeeper?s clearance led to the counter-attack in which Soane beat Fragogiannis down the right again and sent over a cross for Dizdaric that was just over his head under pressure from Morton who managed to head clear himself.
The pace was unrelenting although the aggressive approach of Parramatta was gaining the upper hand over the stylish Sharks, and as the opportunities came thick and fast it was the visitors who created the better chances yet failed to capitalize, so when on the stroke of half-time Dizdaric was afforded the time to spin inside the box and get a scrambled shot toward the net from an Elrich corner that bobbled its way through a mass of legs to give the eagles the lead, it couldn?t really have come as a surprise.
Indeed, the Eagles should have doubled their lead immediately on the resumption when Soane stole the ball and teed up Dizdaric but the scuffed shot was easy for Sharks ?keeper Jack Duncan to gather but it was a case of what might have been for Sutherland as Halloran sent Jasli away once more but his low shot was straight at Romic.
Sharks coach Robbie Stanton brought on Matt Bailey and Jimmy Bakis to replace Halloran and Lachlan Cahill and when Bailey, Bakis and Sam Awad combined it took another Romic intervention to parry the ball, but Bailey?s follow-up went for a goal kick.
Bailey did get on the scoresheet minutes later when finishing off a move involving Price and Jasli to get back in the game although they were behind within 60?? seconds as Luke Grima ghosted in at the back post to slip the ball beyond Duncan and restore home advantage.
Controversy raised its head when a Price shot appeared to be handled inside the box that was waved away by the officials but the incident didn?t finish there as Sharks captain George Souris remonstrated with referee Kris Griffiths-Jones and found his way into the book, but after continuing to remonstrate received a second caution immediately and was ordered from the field.
The game deteriorated as tempers flared momentarily but it was left to substitute Shane Ardle to cap off a memorable evening for Parramatta when curling a shot into the net from the angle of the box to leave the score at three goals to one at full-time, in a game that had few highlights but was a typical 90? minutes of cup football.
Sharks coach Robbie Stanton said afterwards:
?We could have won the game with the chances we created in the first-half, if we learn the offside rule properly, we could have got a few goals.
?We could have had a couple of square passes into the box that would have given us the lead and to concede a goal a minute before the break on a bumpy pitch isn?t good and we used a few young boys tonight to see how they would go and experiment a little and in the end I threw on the guys with a bit more experience and had we taken our chances we would have been right.
?Parramatta are not as bad a side as people think and their position on the table doesn?t reflect how hard they are to play and perhaps we weren?t as enthusiastic as we needed to be tonight and got punished.?
Pat Marando was in better mood stating:
?It was an ugly match, scrappy at best but we needed to grind our way to a win and sometimes you have to play like that to get some momentum into your season and if we have to play like that we will because I feel the boys put in 100% tonight.
?Our lads played hard in the middle of the park and the back four dug deep to contain Sutherland and we talked about reducing errors in our back third and try to force errors in their half of the field and tonight it worked out thanks to the effort put in.
?We?re obviously happy to be in the hat for the next round but hopefully this result can give us the springboard we need to pick up points in the Premier League and if we continue to out-muscle teams there is no reason why we shouldn?t be able to do so but there are no easy games so we?ll keep working on improvement.?
Match Stats
Parramatta FC 3 (Dizdaric 45?, Grima 75?, Ardle 86?)
Sutherland Sharks 1 (Bailey 74?)
Wednesday 8th June, 2011
Melita Stadium, South Granville
Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones
Assistant Referees: Thomas Diakos and Bachar Allan
Parramatta FC: 23.Tomislav Romic; 2.Nick McInerney, 5.George Stroglyos, 6.Tom Wilson, 8.Bryan Soane (14.Fabien Iacovelli 72?), 9.Kutaiba Elrich (C), 12.Marc O?Donell, 16.Jonathan Castano-Acero, 20.Evangelos Petratos, 18.Almir Dizdaric (7.Shane Ardle 79?), 33.Luke Grima (11.Peter Crevani 90?)
Substitutes Not Used: 4.Daniel Fogarty, 21.Anthony Costa
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Sutherland Sharks: 22.Jack Duncan; 2.George Souris (C), 4.Yianni Fragogiannis, 5.Lachlan Cahill (7.Jimmy Bakis 60?), 6.Sam Awad, 8.Chris Price, 11.Todd Halloran (10.Matt Bailey 60?), 12.Hayden Morton, 15.Michael Katz (3.Tyson Rhodes 84?), 20.Paul Kohler,19.Hussein Jasli
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Nathan Denham, 37.Ehsan Popal
Yellow Cards: Souris 78?, Bakis 81?, Fragogiannis 88?, Morton 90?
Red Cards: Souris 78?
-By Micky Brock
