Classy Sutherland brush aside luckless Wolves
Matt Bailey opened the scoring for the hosts in the first-half before Panni Nikas doubled their advantage shortly after the restart.
Mark Picciolini?s dismissal along with Cam Littler?s injury with no remaining substitutes available meant Wolves were forced to finish with nine men, extinguishing any chance of a comeback before late goals to Bailey and captain Nick Stavroulakis put the icing on the cake for Sutherland.
Jack Keating was the unlikely source of the first attacking opportunity of the match in the opening minutes; the right-back stole possession from Matt Gordon and darted across Sutherland?s 18-yard box before his shot was deflected wide for a corner.
Hussein Salameh looked lively on Sutherland?s right flank from the outset, creating an early chance for Nikas which was blocked by Jacob Timpano?s timely intervention.
Salameh carved out a chance of his own soon after, cutting inside from the right wing before unleashing a wicked goal-bound effort from 20-yards that was tipped wide by Daniel Collison?s athletic diving save.
Soon after that it was the Sharks that drew first blood as Stavroulakis whipped a delightful cross towards Bailey whose looping header beat Collison that gave the hosts the early advantage.
While both sides continued to battle for spells of possession it was Sutherland that continued to appear the more frugal in front of goal, with Nikas? powerful angled effort deflecting past Collison?s far post before Stavroulakis drove a shot wide from the ensuing short corner.
Wolves found their attacking feet once again midway through the half and came within inches of finding an equaliser as Picciolini flashed a 25-yard effort inches wide of goal.
With the visitors pressing forward Chris Price showed great vision on the half hour mark to catch Wolves backline sitting flat, launching a dangerous long-ball from deep within Sutherland?s half to put Bailey through on goal.
Collison?s reaction speed was superb; darting off his line to beat Bailey to the ball and clear any danger.
Bailey was handed another chance minutes later after playing a smart one-two with Salameh, however his finish let him down as he skied his effort well over the crossbar.
Nikas had a penalty shout rightly waved away late in the half while Picciolini showed great hunger in the attacking third, missing Nathan Denham?s belated cross by a split second as the hosts held their lead going into the interval.
Trevor Morgan?s half-time words looked to spur his side on in attack and Peter Simonovski almost answered his call, dragging a shot wide from the edge of the box seconds after the restart
At the other end Gordon strayed from the left side of defence to try his luck from range, however his effort flew harmlessly wide of goal.
The hosts found their second goal of the night soon after; Nikas was fed the ball from deep and sharply turned past Timpano to fire a crisp finish past Collison and double his side?s advantage.
Wolves pushed forward straight away in search of a route back into the match.
John Martinovski?s cross was headed central by Fabian Iacovelli, however Denham was on hand to pluck the ball out of the air under intense pressure from Sasho Petrovski.
Nick Littler broke free down the left flank soon after, delivering a dangerous cross that Yianni Fragogianis turned onto his own post; the ball miraculously rebounded straight into Denham?s safe hands, sparing Fragogianis? blushes and bemusing the gobsmacked spectators.
Wolves? hunt for an equaliser took a significant blow minutes later as Picciolini saw red for releasing a few frustrated words at the officials, leaving his side a man short and with a seemingly impossible comeback on their hands.
Salameh looked to take advantage immediately, cutting past Littler before running into Timpano?s crunching challenge that both cleared any danger and left Salameh lying injured on the turf and requiring substitution.
Michael Stuart was forced off with a shoulder injury soon after; Robbie Stanton opting for a straight swap with Hayden Morton, while Trevor Morgan looked to turn things around with a triple substitution.
The hosts were able to find a lot of space with their man advantage ? no one more so than Price, who had an eternity to line up a curled effort that was tipped over the crossbar by Collison.
Nikas went close finding his second from the resulting corner; his placed header found its way through a maze of players before bouncing just wide of the far post.
Bailey was gifted his second goal of the night soon after; Nikas did all the hard work, breaking into the box and skipping past Collison before centring to an unmarked Bailey who placed the simplest of finishes into an open goal.
Things went from bad to worse for Wolves in the closing stages as substitute Cam Littler was forced from the field with injury. With all three substitutions already completed the visitors were forced to play out the closing minutes with nine men.
Nikas had the ball in the back of the net once again late in the half only to have his neat finish correctly ruled out by a confident offside flag before Stavroulakis wrapped up the scoring with a smartly taken goal via a sneaky chip from the edge of the box in injury time to complete the resounding victory in front of their ecstatic home fans.
Sutherland Sharks coach Robbie Stanton was delighted with tonight?s result, and also identified that his side still have work to do to get his side in finals contention:
?It?s a nice change after having dropped a few points in recent weeks,? said Stanton.
?To be honest last week I thought we played well enough to win the game or at least get a point, which we didn?t get, but the midweek cup game allowed us to refocus.
?We?ve really focussed on our style of football this year and have tried to become a proactive football team rather than a counterattacking team.
?I?ve realised we?ve got to make changes if we want to compete in the finals.
?At this stage we?re passing to be at the halfway mark, but think we?ve still got some work to do to be in the finals.
?There are a few teams ahead of us that have got the points already and have shown that they can win games at home.
?We?ve still got work to do but we want to get there,? Stanton added.
Stanton also took time out to praise the performance of Panni Nikas, who was in sensation form across the park tonight:
?Panni for me has been outstanding for us this year,? said Stanton.
?I?ve played him as a 9, as a 10, even dropped him back into a 6 role, but really he?s a 10 and always does the things on the field that I?d want him to do.
?He pries teams open; he?s very creative and always loves the ball in tight spaces.
?He deserves to get up to the next level and hopefully one day he?ll get there.?
South Coast Wolves coach Trevor Morgan credited Sutherland with a well earned result after a tough outing for his squad:
?I thought Sutherland were too classy from start to finish,? said Morgan.
?They thoroughly deserved their win.
?At half-time we talked about what we needed to do to get control of the game ? we did that for a little while and started to create chances in the second-half ? but after giving goals away cheaply in the first and second half and then having the send off and having a player off injured after all three subs you?d expect them to put us to the sword.
?Don?t get me wrong, Sutherland had a lot of dominance over us tonight
?This was the most one-sided a game has been against us for months including the end of last season so they fully deserve it.
?We were lucky it wasn?t more really.?
Having produced a stellar season thus far, Morgan is looking to put the result behind him and get his side straight back on track as they look to hold onto their spot in the top six.
Having redeveloped the club?s mantra from the bottom up, Wolves have sent shockwaves through the competition as they still occupy second position on the NSW Premier League competition despite tonight?s hiccup:
?We?ll have a couple of days off to forget about this one,? said Morgan.
?That?s the best Sutherland?s played this year.
?We?ve done the hard work to get to 19-points so far in the season, which affords us the odd bit of damage like what happened tonight.
?Usually we can score goals against everybody ? tonight we couldn?t.
?But we know what we need to do this season to keep us in there with the top teams, tonight we didn?t do it.
?The club has struggled hard to get back from near-relegation three years ago, and a lot of people have put in a lot of time to develop the youth system and staff and we?ve developed a philosophy to try and develop our own kids.
?If we can make it to finals football it will be some turnaround with a budget that?s probably half that of the other clubs,? concluded Morgan.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 4 (Matt Bailey 14?, 79?, Panni Nikas 50?, Nick Stavroulakis 90+2?)
South Coast Wolves 0
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Seymour Shaw, Miranda
Referee: Stephen Lucas
Assistant Referees: Adam Coombes and Michael Robertson
Fourth Official: Sebastian Brennon
Sutherland Sharks: 1.Nathan Denham; 3.Tyson Rhodes, 4.Yianni Fragogianis, 5.Paul Cotte, 6.Matt Gordon (29.Chris Naumoff 83?), 8.Chris Price, 9.Hussein Salameh (7.Jim Bakis 62?), 10.Matt Bailey, 14.Nick Stavroulakis, 18.Michael Stuart (12.Hayden Morton 69?), 23.Panni Nikas
Substitutes Not Used: 13.Nick Tsattalios, 22.Simon Jaeger
Yellow Cards: Matt Bailey 29?
Red Cards: Nil
South Coast Wolves: 1.Daniel Collison; 2.Jack Keating, 26.Jacob Timpano, 4.Michael Robinson, 6.Nick Littler (7.Cameron Littler 68?), 8.Chris Nathaniel, 9.Mark Picciolini, 10.Sasho Petrovski, 11.John Martinovski (15.Jack Madgwick 68?), 13.Peter Simonovski, 14.Fabian Iacovelli (12.Sean Robertson 68?)
Substitutes Not Used: 16.Bradley Ferraro, 20.Hayden Durose
Yellow Cards: Sasho Petrovski 43?
Red Cards: Mark Picciolini 56?
Player Ratings:
3 ? Panni Nikas (SS)
2 ? Nick Stavroulakis (SS)
1 ? Matt Bailey (SS)
(As of next week the player ratings will be hidden till the end of the NSW Premier League season)
-By Michael Shoolman
