Sharks forced to battle for win over Suns
Despite the win, the Sharks did not have everything go their own way with the side forced to fight until the end to secure the win over the Suns.
A somewhat fortuitous finish, rounding off good work down the Sharks? left flank, where Yianni Fragogianis slipped the ball through to Chris Price who beat his marker and centred for Huseyin Jasli, who appeared to overrun the ball only to flick it beyond the despairing dive of Dion Shaw to give the home side the lead on 6? minutes.
It was the only goal of the game although enough chances were created throughout to win a dozen.
Sutherland nearly had a second in the 13? minute when a Jimmy Bakis cross found Price unmarked in the box. The midfielder sent his header across the face only to be flagged offside as the signs were looking ominous for visiting Rockdale.
Panni Nikas had Shaw down sharply to stop a 30-yard effort which was closely followed by a full length save from Price in the 19? minute as Sutherland went hard at the Suns in search of a second crucial goal. The visitors however showed some great resilience in stemming the tide.
Paul Dee fired wildly over from the edge of the box in reply when James Monie laid the ball back into his path as the Suns returned fire, but Sutherland at home are a hard task to beat and looked sharper early on.
The Suns stuck to the job in hand and slowly began to peg it back. Joshua Lawson came close again from a corner when heading wide as the Suns began to create the odd half-chance.
Monie was making headway into the Sharks defence and looked dangerous at times, but as the lone striker was being asked to do too much at times as the support was slow to arrive.
Rockdale almost restored parity in the 40? minute when a Shay Spitz cross met the head of Sash Tirovski, who thundered into the box to meet the ball at pace, only to slip it agonisingly over the bar with Nathan Denham seemingly beaten.
Wally Savor, Suns coach, would certainly have been the happier of the two going into the half-time break being only the one down as his side fought back well whilst Sutherland didn?t make the most of their early superiority on the scoreboard.
Rockdale started the brighter on the resumption with Spitz twice put clean through forcing Denham to narrow the angle and then firing wildly over the bar.
George Souris came close to an own goal cutting out a Paul Dee cross although in fairness it?s debateable he knew too much about it as the Suns added grit to their hard work and pushed tirelessly onward for an equaliser.
Tirovski sent a left footed shot over the bar from 25-yards as the visitors began to peg Sutherland back into their own half, something their play suggested was always on the cards but the equaliser remained speculative and elusive.
Jasli and Sutherland nearly claimed a second in the 75? minute when Bakis put in a centre the young striker side-footed toward goal that had Shaw diving to keep out.
Cahill almost made an immediate impact when powering through the defence and squaring the ball for Price who brought the best out of Shaw that kept the score line at 1-0, as Sutherland took the game back to Rockdale using their pace down the flanks to slot the ball in over the top for the speedsters to collect. It almost worked several times as they changed their shape, defending in numbers and attacking at pace after drawing the Suns forward.
Monie had the opportunity to level it near the end but his looping header was expertly tipped over by Denham.
As Rockdale pushed forward trying to get something from the match they left the inevitable gaps at the back for Sutherland to exploit, but when Spitz had a free-kick batted down by Denham it was Issa who reacted quickest but fired hopelessly over from the edge of the box with almost the last kick of the game.
The final whistle blew with no further addition to trouble the scorers that had Sharks coach Robbie Stanton stating later:
?With no disrespect to Rockdale I thought the first-half we toyed with them a bit.
?When they came at us down the middle we went wide and when they countered that we went down the middle with the ball over the top and never really looked as if we didn?t control the match.
?Everything worked well for us tonight, everything was spot on that we worked on in training and in the second-half they were a goal down and had nothing to lose and we coped with the pressure really well and of course they had chances but we took ours when they didn?t.
?You have to give them credit for the way they played after the break when they readjusted their pattern and took it to us and stopped us from playing our natural game but we created enough to win by two or three.
?We?ll take a one goal win any day of the week, it?s been like that for us all year so we?re not worried about it.
?We played the first 45-minutes with high risk football and got the rewards with Hus (Huseyin Jasli) coming into the side replacing the injured Sam Awad after being very patient all year for the chance and scores early on and that was the difference.
?I have no fears about putting the youngsters in the side because I know they are hungry and won?t let us down so things are looking good at this stage but ideally I want us to finish in the Top Three and we haven?t secured that yet so we still have a lot to play for between now and the end of the season to ensure that happens.?
Wally Savor looked a little dejected when answering the same questions after yet another game when adding:
?I am a little fed up stating the same thing to be honest.
?I?m fed up with being told we?ve played good, attacking and pretty football without getting the rewards to go with it so all I want now for us to play an ugly game and get the three points.
?As for tonight, we lost the game in the first-half and that left us chasing the match but Sutherland are hard to beat on their home patch even though I still felt we deserved to get something here but football isn?t always fair.
?We?ve worked hard at training and the signs tonight are that we are starting to see that hard work come to fruition and we?ll continue to hopefully show improvement until the final game and look to build on that for next season and attain as high a league position as possible this campaign.?
In the Grade-20 match, Sutherland Sharks defeated Rockdale City Suns 4-0.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 1 (Jasli 6?)
Rockdale City Suns 0
Saturday 13th August, 2011
Seymour Shaw Park, Miranda
Referee: Stephen Lucas
Assistant Referees: Steven Nguyen and Dean Ward
Fourth Official: Janne Sjogren
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 2.George Souris (C), 4.Yianni Fragogianis, 7.Jimmy Bakis (11.Todd Halloran 85?), 8.Chris Price (20.Paul Kohler 90?), 10.Matt Bailey, 12.Hayden Morton, 14.Nick Stavroulakis, 15.Mike Katz, 19.Huseyin Jasli (5.Lachlan Cahill 75), 23.Panni Nikas
Substitutes Not Used: 37.Ehsan Popal, 22.Alex Augusto
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Rockdale City Suns: 22.Dion Shaw; 2.Paul Dee (C), 3.Shay Spitz, 5.Jeffrey Issa, 6.Joshua Lawson, 7.Pece Apolevski (C) (9.Jason Naidovski 76), 8.Dominic Hudap,12.James Monie, 17.Sash Tirovski, 21.Mirko Jurilj, 23.Askin Oygur
Substitutes Not Used: 11.Adem Kir, 19.Marino Musumeci, 4.Sean Thomas, 24.Aaron Lidell
Yellow Cards: Oygur 84?
Red Cards: Nil
-By Micky Brock
