Blacktown earn Reds scalp with hard fought victory
A great individual goal from Matt Lewis broke the deadlock in the 54? minute in what was a dire top five clash.
Blacktown City started the more eager of the two sides and in the 3? minute troubled the United defence. Goalkeeper Symon Jaegar found Luke Roodenburg with a long ball; the captain flicked the ball on to Travis Major who took advantage of the space down the right hand touchline before crossing the ball, only for the home side to clear.
Sydney United were quick to respond 2? minutes later as Ufuk Talay took a free-kick that picked out Luka Glavas, with the former Perth Glory striker not able control his shot as the ball went out for a goal kick.
The Reds started to get into their groove and in the 8? minute had their second chance on goal. After Glavas took on Zac Cairncross out wide he played the ball back to Ivo Bosnar who crossed it into the Blacktown box. The ball was headed out to the awaiting Mitchell Thompson who, on his right foot, curled the ball just wide of the right-hand upright.
In the 16? minute the home side had another chance go begging as Steve Hayes cleverly beat Luke Austin before shooting wide of the mark.
Blacktown could have taken the lead in extraordinary circumstances in the 18?
minute when Roodenburg headed-on a goal kick to Mitchell Duke who found himself clear on goal. With Ryan Norval off his line Duke tried to chip the shot-stopper only for the ball to go over the crossbar.
The home side should have had a penalty in the 22? minute as Cairncross handled the ball in the box only for the referee to wave play on.
The up and down game continued 2? minutes later as Austin placed a lovely through ball to Mitch Long with the latter beating his defender with his impending shot saved by the awaiting Norval.
Hayes had another opportunity to open the scoring in the 37? minute when Glavas cut the ball back in the Blacktown box only for the midfielder to see his strike go straight into the hands of Jaegar leaving the scores level heading into the break.
Blacktown came out of the break eager to break the deadlock pressuring the United defence.
It was the Reds however who had the first opening on goal in the 50? minute as a Mitchell Spear cross found Glavas who should have done better tapping the ball to Jaegar.
United?s missed opportunities came back to haunt them in the 54? minute as Matt Lewis scored a wonderful solo goal to give his side the 1-0 lead. After picking up the ball in his own half, Lewis got past Bosnar before taking the ball 20-yards out to strike it into the bottom right-hand corner.
The bad news didn?t end there for the Reds as defender Michael Cindric was forced from the field minutes later after picking up a knee injury. The defender replaced by Tom Mijic.
Blacktown could have doubled their lead in the 62? minute after Duke won the ball in a hard challenge down the by line before cutting it back for Milorad Simonovic to strike over the bar.
Jean Paul De Marigny had enough of his side?s poor efforts on goal and turned to his bench in the 68? minute bringing on Petar Markovic and Elsid Barkhousir.
It didn?t take long for Markovic to get into the game with his first touch resulting in a great shot from outside the box that finished inches wide.
The substitutions seemed to spur the home team on as they started troubling the Blacktown defence.
The men from the west were not going to give up and in the 73? minute Roodenburg was played through on goal by Sean Rooney only to beat the goalkeeper and hit the side netting.
With 9? minutes remaining Blacktown City again missed an opportunity to put the game to bed as a Travis Major cross was headed on by Roodenburg for Rooney to head over the crossbar from point-blank range.
A minute later, Sydney United poorly cleared a corner with the ball ending up at Ray Miller?s feet. The youngster?s shot again went over the bar.
Rooney was again in the thick of things in the 85? minute after United mistimed the ball. The former Newcastle Jets striker was through on goal but sliced his shot wide of the mark.
As the game came to an end Sydney United fought hard for an equaliser but could not put the ball in the back of the net giving Blacktown City the 1-0 win.
Following the match Blacktown City FC coach Mark Crittenden said he was extremely pleased with his team?s performance one week out from the finals:
?Going into the finals next week it was a good rehearsal playing one of the best teams in the league,?? he said.
?I?m very happy with the lads, the commitment was good and a lot of the games now turn into battles and I thought we battled really well.
?I also thought we created some good chances to be fair and we got down the touchline well also.??
In the home dressing room Jean Paul De Marigny was not worried about the loss and said his team was already focussing on semi-final football:
?This was a nothing game and we?re looking forward to the finals now,?? he said
?It?s a completely different game in the finals now, do or die and we got good experience in that dressing room for semi-finals.
?We?ve got ourselves here so we?re pretty content with our season overall and we?re looking forward to the next week.??
In the Grade-20 fixture, Blacktown City FC ran away with a 3-0 victory over Sydney United.
Match Stats
Sydney United 0
Blacktown City FC 1 (Lewis 54?)
Sunday 4th September, 2011
Sydney United Sports Centre
Referee: Alex Glasgow
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields and Adam Coombes
Fourth Official: Matt Cropper
Sydney United: 1.Ryan Norval; 3.Mitchell Spear, 4.Michael Cindric (38.Tom Mijic 56?), 5.Anthony Golec, 10.Steve Hayes, 11.Luka Glavas, 13.Ben Vidaic, 15.Ufuk Talay (14.Petar Markovic 68?), 19.Mitchell Thompson (9.Elsid Barkhousir 68?), 21.Mark Rudan, 23.Ivo Bosnar (C)
Substitutes Not Used: 18.Daniel Rezo, 20.Marko Bozic,
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Blacktown City FC: 1.Symon Jaegar; 3.Mitchell Duke (12.Sean Rooney 66?), 4.Travis Major, 5.Patrick Gatt, 7.Luke Roodenburg (C), 9.Kain Rastall (8.David Cain 81?), 10.Mitch Long, 11.Milorad Simonovic (15.Ray Miller 72?), 13.Matt Lewis, 16.Luke Austin, 19.Zac Cairncross
Substitutes Not Used: 40.David Bradesevic
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
-By Chris Georges
