White Eagles sting Blacktown City in frenetic finale
The White Eagles victory sees the side move nine-points clear of their opponents on the evening.
On 3? minutes, Harris Gaitatzis had a shot well held by Brody Crane in the Blacktown goal as the home side came to terms with the icy conditions.
Soon after, header was cleared off the line by Matt Lewis as the White Eagles tested the visiting defence.
Blacktown found their feet and responded in the 9? minute when a James Monie effort was deflected out for a corner that subsequently came to nothing, but still in the early stages of the match it was end to end stuff.
Ryo Watanabe was cautioned on 10? minutes and gave Bonnyrigg a free-kick some 25-yards out, eventually taken by Chris Tadrosse in a well worked routine that Crane forced over the crossbar. From the resulting corner, Blacktown went up the other end of the park and had two shots blocked at point-blank range with some desperate defending.
Tadrosse was again on target from another free-kick on the opposite side of the pitch that curled straight into the arms of Crane as the white Eagles began to apply the pressure and assert themselves somewhat which you expect of the home team, but no prisoners were being taken on the pitch as the caution count mounted.
Crane was again tested by Tadrosse who cut in from the left and had the Blacktown goalkeeper diving at full stretch to beat away the shot in the 33? minute that had the crowd on its feet in a pulsating half of football.
Alex Canak had a shot blocked by City?s Matt Lewis and from the corner his near post header was well held by Crane as another chance went begging.
The resilience of the Blacktown defence paid off in the 43? minute when they broke the deadlock through James Monie. The striker pounced on a chance that gave the White Eagles shot-stopper, who had little to do prior to this, little hope and the visitors had the lead whilst Mitchell Long was off the field with a hamstring injury.
Blacktown took the slenderest of leads into the break although Bonnyrigg had created the better chances and, in the main, had Brody Crane between the sticks to thank for a magnificent performance during the first 45? minutes.
Blacktown had to withstand a barrage of pressure at the start of the second period and were forced to defend stoutly as Bonnyrigg went in search of the equaliser they probably deserved.
Their passing play was intricate and flowing although they didn?t allow Blacktown much space for them to play their usual expansive game as they were being forced to play out from deep positions as the tempo of the match never wavered.
It was a hard, robust affair and certainly warmed the crowd with the manner it was conducted.
The same free-kick routine as in the first-half was attempted in the 66? minute by Bonnyrigg, this time the ball slipped over the bar from Tadrosse although they were getting closer to levelling the match.
The goal duly arrived in the 68? minute when Harris Gaitatzis found the net for Bonnyrigg to restore parity after a goalmouth scramble.
Gaitatzis added a second for Bonnyrigg when his header was adjudged to have crossed the line before being cleared in the 86? minute to give the home side the lead for the first time on the night, a lead they were never to relinquish.
In the closing seconds of the game, Kieran Paull blasted over the crossbar from a central position just outside the box and Blacktown knew this wasn?t to be their night when perhaps they deserved a point.
Mark Crittenden, Blacktown City FC coach, said afterwards:
?I thought in the first-half we were pretty good to be fair and could have come in at the break maybe a couple more in front, they cleared a couple off the line.
?Bonnyrigg were dangerous on set pieces, which is something we spoke about before the game, so to cop two from corners, although the players are adamant it didn?t cross the line, is really disappointing.
?The second-half we sat too deep almost as if we were trying to absorb the pressure and that is something you cannot do against the top sides and especially Bonnyrigg, they are too good a side and when you sit back you give away set pieces and that?s when they are dangerous.
?The result puts them 9-points in front of us and that makes it very difficult to catch them now but there are plenty of positives to take from the game and we?ll go into the next match looking for the three points.?
A happier Brian Brown of Bonnyrigg commented:
?This was always going to be a tough game, Blacktown vs Bonnyrigg is probably the highlight of the year for both sides so we were under no illusions about what to expect from them tonight in a local derby game.
?I actually feel Blacktown had the better of the first-half, they caught us out a wee bit, they were breaking forward really quickly.
?We made a few changes at the break and I don?t know if they sat back or we pushed on but I felt we were comfortable in the second-half and if we got the goal I thought we would go on to win the match, which in the end we did.
?We probably had three or four boys who didn?t perform well in the opening 45? minutes but came into the game after the break and I feel that was the difference and perhaps had 45% of the first-half and 100% of the second.?
Match Stats
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 2 (Harris Gaitatzis 68?, 85?)
Blacktown City FC 1 (James Monie 44?)
Saturday 9th June, 2012
Bonnyrigg Sports Centre, Bonnyrigg
Referee: James Lewis
Assistant Referees: Scott Edeling and Nathan Wotton
Fourth Official: Gregory Clarke
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1.Ben McNamara; 2.Alex Mansueto, 5.Chris Tadrosse (C), 6.Nicola Zonjic, 8.Alexander Canak, 11.Ben Spruce, 13.Nikola Stanojevic, 16.Adrian Ucchino, 19.Harris Gaitatzis, 21.Ken Chun (10.Jordan Simpson 81?), 23.Mitchell Long (7.Tynan Diaz 45?)
Substitutes Not Used: 17.Jordan Crighton, 27.Nicola Todoroski, 33.Nikodin Matic
Yellow Cards: Ucchino 18?, Gaitatzis 31?
Red Cards: Nil
Blacktown City FC: 1.Brody Crane; 3.Ryo Watanabe (17.Sean Rooney 86?), 4.Travis Major, 6.Matt Lewis, 16.Luke Austin, 18.Kieran Paull, 7.Luke Roodenburg (C), 8.Daniel Bragg, 9.Ryuji Miyazawa (11.Yuchi Yamouchi 81?), 10.James Monie, 19.Zach Cairncross
Substitutes Not Used: 11.Yuchi Yamauchi, 12.David Cain, 17.Sean Rooney, 15.Ray Miller, 20.Luke Turnbull
Yellow Cards: Watanabe 10?, Cairncross 20?, Major 24?, Austin 73?
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 ? Brody Crane (BCFC)
2 ? Chris Tadrosse (BWE)
1 ? Harris Gaitatzis (BWE)
(As of next week the Player Ratings will be hidden till the end of the NSW Premier League season)
-By Micky Brock
