White Eagles suffer first loss of the season as Barkhousir sparks Sydney United victory

Coming back from a lengthy injury spell on the sidelines, Reds coach John Paul de Marigny?s tactics in using Barkhousir as a substitute in the 66^th minute paid dividends as a minute later with his second touch of the ball, the pint sized striker was celebrating with the United faithful after a Bonnyrigg White Eagles defensive blunder.
Going into the match the home side were dealt with two massive blows as 2011 NSW Premier League Player of the Year and midfield lynchpin Steve Hayes was on the sidelines through injury as was big striker Ben Vidaic while a notable absentee for the White Eagles was the midfield presence of Jordan Simpson.
The action commenced as early as the first thirty seconds of the match as Tynan Diaz gave a neat ball to Alex Canak on the right hand side who squared the ball superbly to Robbie Yonis inside the six-yard box but the NSW Premier League?s leading marksman skied his effort well over the bar.
United?s Mitchell Speer, who was a constant menace for the home side throughout the match went on a great solo run down the right hand side in the 12^th minute and followed up with a decent shoot but White Eagles keeper Ben McNamara was equal to the task saving his shot for a corner.
The match played in high spirits came to life in the 17^th minute when referee Alex Glasgow issued the game?s only caution that went to Bonnyrigg?s talented young stopper David Vrankovic on a bone crunching tackle on Petar Markovic.
A minute later and United almost capitalised on a defensive White Eagles error as Alex Mansueto attempted to head the ball back to McNamara but the ball was intercepted by the elusive Luka Glavas whose chip went bouncing over the keeper. With the ball bouncing slowly towards the goal-line, McNamara miraculously put his fingertips over the ball thwarting the home side?s first goal much to the dismay of the home crowd who felt the ball had crossed the line.
Sydney United 58 continued to pepper the White Eagles goal and Ante Tomic had a stinging left foot shot inside the box saved by McNamara in the 20^th minute while Speer again unleashed a drive in the 33^rd minute but the White Eagles number one was yet again up to the task with a great save.
The resulting corner almost produced the game?s first goal as Daniel Barac?s header hit the crossbar and bounced out for a goal-kick as this was to be the match?s final chance as the game ended scoreless at the break.
Brian Brown made a double change at half-time as he brought on Nikola Zonjic and new recruit Adrian Ucchino who replaced Harry Gaitatzis and Mitchell Long who seemed to have picked up an injury during the opening half. Ucchino incidentally made his NSW Premier League debut after the 20-year-old spent the last few season?s playing in the Italian lower leagues.
Straight from the kick-off and yet again a chance fell early on as Ken Chun, after skimming past Michael Cindric took a shot from outside the box but his effort went wide in the 48^th minute.
The White Eagles went pressing for that equalising goal and went close in the 56^th minute when Diaz took a shot from outside the box that fell right to the foot of Vrankovic who wasn?t expecting it and his reaction shot was well picked up Vedran Janjetovic.
Hearts in mouths for the visitors were seen two minutes later as McNamara spilled a high ball inside the box with the resulting ball falling to Glavas who took a half-hearted shot towards the goal but was cleared on the line by the Bonnyrigg defence out for safety.
Younis, who was kept rather quiet for the majority of the match, went close in the 60^th minute as he rolled Mitchell Stamatellis but his resulting shot was saved by Janjetovic. Stamatellis otherwise had a pretty sound game in defence alongside Cindric as the duo held together well as the team?s rocks in defence.
Brown?s men were still searching for that goal and Vrankovic again went close with a header inside the box but was saved by the Reds number one who pushed the ball out for a corner.
On 66 minutes, Barkhousir entered the fray and replaced Ante Tomic and a minute later he was celebrating as he put United in the lead.
White Eagles defender Nikola Stanojevic gave an awful headed back pass to McNamara but the ball fell to the clutches of Barkhousir who used his first touch to beat the keeper and his second to strike the ball home to put Sydney United 58 one-nil up in the 67^th minute.
The game desperately needed a goal as the action opened up for both sides with Diaz again going close in the 78^th minute with a neat volley inside the box hitting the post.
With only stoppage time, remaining the Reds went for the killer blow as Glavas started off a brilliant move with an exceptional dummy with the ball trickling to Kyle Ewart who put in a teasing ball to Barkhousir inside the box but his shot went straight to McNamara?s hands.
The game had one last incident in the 93^rd minute before the full time whistle was blown as Diaz appeared to go down in the penalty box but Alex Glasgow waved play on and with that blew the final whistle on the White Eagles? first loss for 2012.
Victorious Sydney United 58 coach John Paul de Marigny was delighted with the club?s third win of 2012 and praised the team?s performance.
?I was pretty pleased with how the game went overall.
?I thought the first half went well; we?ve been working on a few things and the boys responded to that really well. I thought at times we controlled the ball well in the midfield which created a few opportunities.
?I felt we had a better first half than Bonnyrigg even though they had a huge opportunity to score in the first minute of the match via Younis. Second half at times for us was a bit sloppy but the boys showed a lot of resilience and got on with the job and we finished with the three points.?
Asked what his view was on bringing on ?super sub? Barkhousir to score the only goal of the game, de Marigny replied.
?Elsid is always someone that can do something and can surprise his opponent; he?s that type of player very unpredictable at times.
?Both myself, Ufuk (Talay) and Gibbo (Mike Gibson) knew that we were going to put him on during the match thankfully it paid off by putting him on at the right time.
?He?s certainly an asset to the club and the players and fans really like him, but he took his chance today and got that goal that was to be the difference in the match.?
Finally on the injury front, de Marigny stated that both Hayes and Vidaic?s injury?s weren?t long term.
?Steve looks like he may come into contention next weekend while Benny is touch and go at this stage as it all depends on how he responds to treatment.?
For the White Eagles, a resolute ?Bomber? Brian Brown accepted that his side weren?t up to scratch which resulted in the club?s first loss of the year.
?I think we deserved what we got really especially the way we performed in the first half, I think after the first ten minutes we weren?t at the races.
?The second half I thought the boys played really well.
?We changed a few things around, our commitment was far better and with that came a few chances so I was happy with that although disappointed with the final result.
?I take my hat off to Sydney United 58 though – we couldn?t have played them at a better time as they had a few key members out of their squad and performed really well.?
Looking beyond the match, Brown lamented that the team would get back to basics in rediscovering the form which saw them win five on the trot.
?The fact that we were sitting top after five games probably surprised everybody else as much as it surprised us.
?We just need to get back into what we were doing good which got us five victories in a row and looking at our second half performance, there was plenty to look at as positives so we will be ready for the Blacktown Spartans in round 7 next weekend.?
Match Stats
Sydney United 58 1
(Elsid Barkhousir 67?)
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 0
Sunday, May 6^th, 2011
Sydney United Sports Centre, Edensor Park
Referee: Alexander Glasgow
Assistant Referees: Sarah Ho and Adam Coombes
Fourth Official: Adrian Arndt
Sydney United 58: 1. Vedran Janjetovic, 2. Mitchell Speer, 4. Michael Cindric, 6. Mitchell Stamatellis, 8. Jarod Lum, 11. Luka Glavas, 19. Mitchell Thompson (16. Stjepan Paric 64?), 21. Ante Tomic (9. Elsid Barkhousir 66?), 22. Daniel Barac (12. Kyle Ewart 77?), 23. Ivo Bosnar, 14. Petar Markovic.
Substitutes Not Used: 17. Mark Cindric, 20. Ian Johnson
Yellow Cards: Nil
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1. Ben McNamara, 4. David Vrankovic, 13. Nikola Stanojevic, 8. Alex Canak, 5. Chris Tadrosse, 9. Robbie Younis, 23. Mitchell Long (16 Adrian Ucchino 46?), 19. Harris Gaitatzis (3. Nikola Zonjic 46?), 21. Ken Chun, 7. Tynan Diaz, 2. Alex Mansueto
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Andrew Bazi, 15. Luka Dukic, 17. Jordan Crighton
Yellow Cards: D Vrankovic 17?,
Player Ratings:
3 ? Mitchell Stamatellis (SU)
2 ? David Vrankovic (BWE)       
1 ? Mitchell Speer (SU)
-By Mark Stavroulakis