Bankstown scrapes past Wolves in seven-goal thriller
Blaz Dejanovic broke the deadlock early for Bankstown before goals to Wolves? strike pair Sasho Petrovski and Mark Picciolini put the away side in the driver?s seat going into half-time.
The home side battled their way back into the lead with goals to Frederick Graham and debutant Chris Bedzo before an uncharacteristic error from Zlatko Joseski allowed Picciolini to equalise.
Sean Mitchell capped off the rollercoaster ride of a match with a finely taken volley to secure the win for Bankstown on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon at Sefton.
The home side went into the match hungry to maintain their advantage over the visitors, while also starting Bedzo on the bench after his midweek transfer from Blacktown City FC.
Wolves went into the match looking to leapfrog their opponents on the NSW Premier League table, and were unfortunate to suffer personnel setbacks throughout the match as central defensive pairing Dave Abel and Jacob Timpano were both forced off with injury.
Bankstown grabbed an early lead as Wolves failed to clear the first corner of the match; Dejanovic punished the poor clearance by firing into the roof of the net from 6 yards to open the scoring.
Jake Duczynski, who had a fine physical game in midfield throughout the match, had his effort blocked at the other end before Graham jabbed a clear goalscoring chance wide for the home side.
Wolves threatened to equalise from the set piece as Petrovski drew a fine save from Joseski with his powerful 30-yard free kick on the quarter hour before Abel rose well to head Stjepan Paric?s corner straight at the keeper.
The visitors equalised soon after when Petrovski received the ball from a fine move down the left; the experienced striker beat Joseski with a clinical finish to level the scores.
Bankstown threatened to restore their advantage as Hussein Salameh?s darting runs tested the Wolves backline while Steven Bozinovski drilled a long range effort over the bar and Graham forced a fine diving save from Brody Crane.
Despite the home side?s efforts it was Wolves who grabbed the lead just before the half hour mark with a goal from an incisive breakaway.
Andres Gomez was given acres of space on the left wing with Picciolini and Cam Littler available in the middle.
Picciolini dummied over Gomez?s low cross to allow the ball to run through to Littler, who drew Picciolini?s marker before centring for the unmarked striker to tuck the ball home to cap off a fine move.
Graham looked to equalise for Bankstown immediately, skipping by Jacob and forcing a fine block from Crane before Stefanos Liavas? 25-yard effort struck the post and bounced clear.
Picciolini threatened to extend Wolves advantage at the other end, seeing his shot on the slide drift wide before having a chance denied by a fine tackle from Bilal Al Najjarine as the visitors held their lead going into the interval.
Bankstown emerged hungry from the sheds and grabbed an equaliser on 53? minutes through Graham, who curled a fine strike from the edge of the box beyond Crane?s reach and inside the far post to give his side a fine start to the half.
Substitute John Martinovski tested Joseski from 30-yards soon after, however the Bankstown keeper was up to the task, impressively diving to hold the shot.
Crane did well to block Mitchell?s shot soon after but could do nothing to prevent his side from falling behind as Bedzo ran onto a fine through ball to fire the ball inside the near post to mark his Bankstown debut with a well taken goal.
The match took yet another dramatic turn on 72? minutes when Joseski spilt Martinovski?s cross, allowing Picciolini to steal possession and sneak home an equaliser against the run of play.
With momentum swinging back their way the visitors were unlucky not to hit the lead once again minutes later when Picciolini?s header provided Petrovski with a sight of goal from 20-yards, however the striker?s shot glanced wide off the base of the post.
Bankstown responded by throwing numbers forward in search of a winner and was duly rewarded on 78? minutes when Graham was released in the box by Lenox Tweneboa to deliver a precise cross for Mitchell to volley past Crane with what would prove to be the decisive goal.
Wolves pushed forward in search of yet another equaliser, but it wasn?t to be as the home side held on for all three points from a truly entertaining match.
Bankstown City Lions coach Blagoja Kuleski was delighted to have come out on top of such an important fixture to take a large step clear of the bottom of the table:
?This game was game of the year for us,? said Kuleski.
?We?re not chasing the top five; we?re chasing the teams who?re on the bottom.
?Wolves are one of the teams chasing after us, so today we played not for three points but for six points.
?This win means six points for us, it was a hard game, and I?m happy with the win today to earn us a bit more safety in the middle of the table.?
Kuleski maintained that his side are not getting ahead of themselves and will be focussing on securing their safety on the ladder before chasing for a place in the finals:
?First of all we are looking for safety,? said Kuleski.
?After that we can look for something a little bit extra, but I think for now top five is a little bit far away for us.
?But you never know, we need another win to secure safety and after that we can go and attack the fifth position.
?It should be difficult, but in football you never know,? Kuleski added.
South Coast Wolves coach Trevor Morgan was disappointed to have lost this afternoon?s fixture, especially after losing his defensive pairing of Dave Abel and Jacob Timpano to injury during the match:
?Their loss was immense,? said Morgan.
?It means you have to take players out of positions where they?re doing a good job and put them somewhere else.
?Their experience and presence of the pitch is vital ? Dave?s been playing well, Jacob?s trying to come back from injury ? and we have hardly any defenders available, certainly one?s that have the experience for a game like this.
?Leading 2-1 at halftime, it?s unforgivable to give away two goals to go down 3-2, unforgivable.?
Having entered the match looking to jump ahead of Bankstown with a win, Morgan believes his side have made things hard for themselves with today?s loss:
?Today was a tremendous chance to start catching people,? said Morgan.
?We would have gone ahead of these guys and would have had a game in hand to be able to catch some people and get ourselves right back in there, but now we?ve made it harder for ourselves.
?How often do you go away and score three goals and lose?
?Some of the goals we let in were very poor goals.
?Perhaps without being critical of the players you can say when you change your back four that much someone?s going to make a mistake ? the same communication?s not there.
?If you have the same back four for ten games in a row I don?t think you?d let that sort of thing happen.
?We?ve had a lot of trouble with that this season, and in the last six weeks in particular.
?If I had to play tomorrow I?ve got four central defenders unavailable,? Morgan added.
The afternoon?s early fixture saw South Coast Wolves produce a dominant display to brush aside Bankstown City Lions with a 5-0 win in Grade-20 Division.
Match Stats
Bankstown City Lions 4 (Blaz Dejanovic 3?, Frederick Graham 53?, Chris Bedzo, 57?, Sean Mitchell 78?)
South Coast Wolves 3 (Sasho Petrovski 20?, Mark Picciolini 29?, 72?)
Sunday July 3rd, 2011
Jensen Park, Sefton
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Paul Faithful and Craig Fisher
Bankstown City Lions: 1.Zlatko Joseski; 4.Blaz Dejanovic, 7.Stefanos Liavas, 8.Peter Peralta (31.Chris Bedzo 46?), 10.Hussein Salameh, 15.Steven Bozinovski, 18.Lenox Tweneboa, 20.Frederick Graham (6.Daniel Slaveski 84?), 30.Suad Ameti, 32.Sean Mitchell, 34.Bilal Al Najjarine
Substitutes Not Used: GK.A.Anic, 2.Omar Saadi, 19.Steve Krsteski
Yellow Cards: Suad Ameti 41?, Hussein Salameh 83?
Red Cards: Nil
South Coast Wolves: 1.Brody Crane, 22.Zac Freeburn, 3.Dave Abel (15.Tayfun Buyokkopru 21?), 4.Jacob Timpano (18.John Martinovski 50?), 2.Alex Mansueto, 6.Jake Duczynski, 13.Stephen Paric, 14.Cam Littler (7.Samet Kaynak 79?), 8.Andres Gomez, 9.Mark Picciolini, 10.Sasho Petrovski
Substitutes Not Used: 16.Jared Fish, 20.Sam Nastic
Yellow Cards: Alex Mansueto 85?, Tayfun Buyokkopru 87?
Red Cards: Nil
-By Michael Shoolman
