Suns record emphatic win over Spartans
The Suns came out of the traps speedily and were in front in the 2? minute when Peter Apolevski skipped down the right and centred for Tommi Cirjak to hammer home and quell any doubts about the midweek Waratah Cup loss.
Before the Spartans could even realise they were a goal behind, the Suns doubled their lead via Alec Urosevski. A 4? minute goalmouth scramble saw the ball fall to the youngster who drove the ball home to give the home side a two goal advantage.
Blacktown Spartans were certainly caught cold and left to chase the game in the remaining 85? minutes, that would without doubt test their resolve and character. The side responded well in the 13? minute when Danny Wells had a header cleared off the line from a corner as the visiting players composed themselves and made life difficult for the Suns.
Michael Khoury and Jacob Ott combined sweetly down the left for the Spartans with the latter sending in a low cross that was hurriedly cleared by the home defence in the 17? minute before Takuya Muruyama set off down the right for the Suns to win his side a corner.
The resulting corner provided the Suns third goal of the afternoon as captain Peter Apolevski was able to score to give his side a three goal advantage.
Blacktown, to their credit, kept pressing forward and created plenty of first-half chances but none were clear cut.
The Suns nearly exposed the visiting side?s defence once again when Apolevski centred from the right for Urosevski that had the Spartans ?keeper, and captain, Carlos Saliadarre bravely down to save at the feet of the 18-year old striker.
The visitors replaced Jacob Ott with Steven Veleski in the 28? minute in an attempt to stem the Rockdale flow in this fast paced free-flowing match yet Huseyin Jasli was able to fashion a left-footed effort that was blocked with Pece Cvetanovski following up to fire high over the crossbar on 30? minutes.
Paul Kohler netted a fourth for the Suns after neatly dribbling through the Blacktown defence and firing home from inside the box with a sweetly struck right-footed shot in the 44? minute, leaving the home side in raptures and the visiting Spartans looking shell shocked as Rockdale had their record win clearly within sight (previously 4-1 win against Parramatta 2011).
It was all Rockdale in the opening 45? minutes that all but ensured victory in this fixture, so it was for Blacktown to regain some pride with nothing to lose in the second period.
After the break, Urosevski was inches away from his second of the afternoon when spinning on the edge of the box from a Jasli through ball that narrowly passed the post with Saliadarre stranded on 50? minutes.
Rockdale continued to press via Cirjak who fired wide less than a minute later in a period of play completely dominated by the home side.
Jasli forced Saliadarre into a fine save with a shot on the run and from the resulting corner, the shot-stopper was again forced to punch clear as Rockdale went in search of their fifth of the day.
Former Gold Coast United striker Dylan Macallister came on in place of Urosevski in the 62? minute to add further firepower up front and to give the youngster a well deserved rest.
With a milestone in sight, Rockdale dropped off the intensity and when Jasli fired a free-kick into the wall in the 79? minute, the cards appeared to have been dealt with the first-half score line standing and Blacktown not being allowed to get into the match.
Rockdale bettered their previous high score by keeping a clean sheet but a fifth goal would have added the icing on the cake in a match they never looked under any threat in.
Deep into injury-time, Jasli was put clean through on goal in stoppage time to chip the goalkeeper though it was ruled out for offside.
Ben DeHaan was disconsolate after the game when stating:
?It?s not a ground you can play football on to be honest and that helped to catch us out when we conceded two goals in the first 4? minutes.
?It no doubt contributed but they just knocked the ball forward and exposed us and scored goals and sometimes it isn?t pretty but it is effective and that?s what happens in football.
?They opened us up down the right with the pace of their play and that was our undoing in all honesty, and the second-half was really a nothing 45? minutes for us but we kept going and created a few half-chances we couldn?t put away.?
Mark Rudan of the Suns was chirpier when adding:
?I was extremely pleased with our first-half performance even if you take the result away I was still pleased with the way we went out there and tried to play the game.
?We were very positive and that is what we have worked on in the training and working more now with the ball and certain patterns of play going forward and it?s very pleasing that the boys went out there and actually executed that today.
?I?m very happy that at half-time we didn?t allow them back into the game and I thought for the first 15? to 20? minutes of the half we applied enough pressure on them and we still created a lot of chances in the send-half also.
?Although the intensity dropped I thought we were still very positive and created plenty of chances and could have perhaps added to our first-half count but we didn?t rest on our laurels.?
Match Stats
Rockdale City Suns 4 (Tom Cirjak 2?, Alec Urosevski 4?, Peter Apolevski 19?, Paul Kohler 44?)
Blacktown Spartans 0
Sunday 27th May, 2012
Ilinden Sports Centre, Rockdale
Referee: Alex Glasgow
Assistant Referees: Sarah Ho and Allyson Flynn
Fourth Official: Michael Robertson
Rockdale City Suns: 1.Ryan Norval; 2.Takuya Muruyama, 3.Giorgio Speranza, (6.Joshua Lawson 86?), 5.Pece Cvetanovski (16.Anthony Perri 75?), 7.Peter Apolevski (C), 8.Paul Kohler, 18.Alec Urosevski (9.Dylan Macallister 62?), 11.Tom Cirjak, 12.Huseyin Jasli, 21.Ricky Perinich, 23.Askin Oygur
Substitutes Not Used: 14.Danny Slaveski, 22.Aaron Liddell
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre (C); 2.Michael Khoury, 4.Danny Wells (8.Djordje Degenek 68?), 5.Luke Boyd, 6.Greg Kondek, 7.Sean Mitchell, 9.Chris Bedzo, 10.Chris Gomez, 13.Jacob Ott (11.Steven Veleski 28?), 17.Peter Hubbard, 36.Tomislav Herceg
Substitutes Not Used: 3.Nathan Millgate, 33.Lord Darkoh, 40.Jesse Shewan
Yellow Cards: Kondek 90?+2?
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Paul Kohler (RCS)
2 ? Tom Cirjak (RCS)
1 ? Takuya Muruyama (RCS)
-By Micky Brock
