Blacktown City FC and South Coast Wolves share the spoils

Blacktown City FC and South Coast Wolves played out a 2-2 draw in sweltering conditions earlier this afternoon at Lily Homes Stadium where each team walked away feeling that they should have snared the full three points on offer.
In a see-sawing affair where both teams, at various stages throughout the game, commanded ascendency over the other, it was the Wolves who garnered the early momentum setting a scorching pace during the opening stanza to match that of the inflated temperature at the ground.
South Coast’s pocket dynamo John Martinoski picked up where he left off last week against the Sharks as he repeatedly linked with speedster Mitchell Del Turco, and when Chris Nathaniel joined in on the action with a perfectly executed shot in the 6′ minute – only to be denied by a brilliant save by Blacktown City’s custodian Brodey Crane – it was evident that the South Coast boys had turned up ready to play an exciting brand of football.
However, momentum can change in the blink of an eye and when Wolves captain Jacob Timpano made an uncharacteristic error just minutes later when he handed the ball over cheaply inside his own penalty area, Blacktown’s best chance through a Ray Miller thunderbolt was only denied by a text book save by South Coast goalkeeper Daniel Collison who neatly tipped the ball over the crossbar. 
Miller’s close call provided the spark that Blacktown City had been lacking, and when teammate Kearyn Baccus delivered a superb midfielder’s pass through to livewire Matthew Mayora the home-side was only denied by yet another Collison save.
By the midway point in the first-half Blacktown City had fully regained their composure having survived the Wolves’ initial onslaught and should have gone 1-0 up after former A-Leaguer Sean Rooney supplied a perfectly weighted through ball to partner in crime Harry Gaitatzis, who, despite the angle, only had the goalkeeper to beat, but instead skewed it wide of the right post.
The Wolves, to their credit, refused to buckle under the pressure and responded with a number of raids through Martinoski who began to gradually bring star striker Ricky Zucco into the game.
The 28′ minute offered Zucco with his best opportunity after some combination work by Martinoski and Del Turco delivered the Wolves’ imposing #10 a gift at his feet where he shot wildly and, in hindsight, should have passed the ball back to an unmarked Martinoski.
The ensuing 15′ minutes again saw momentum swing back and forth like a pendulum, but it was the Wolves who capitailised. A master stroke by Wolves coach Richard Lloyd – where he switched the impressive Del Turco to the other side of the field in an effort to keep him away from the unflappable defensive efforts of Blacktown City’s left-back Mathew Lewis, who snuffed out anything the Wolves threw down his side – paid dividends for the South Coast attack where Del Turco’s speed created havoc for the opposing defence.
The turning point of the first-half came in the 42′ minute when Del Turco was brought down in a hard challenge by Patrick Gatt just inside the penalty-area, and without any hesitation the referee pointed immediately to the spot.
Zucco stepped up and made no mistake to open South Coast’s account to lead his side into the halftime break with a 1-0 lead.
The second-half commenced in stark contrast to the first as, despite the oppressing heat, the heavens opened up and drenched the pitch. The downpour appeared to provide the home-side a new lease on life as they came out of the sheds with renewed vigor.
Following a barrage of corners that provided Blacktown City with a swagger of opportunities the sustained pressure eventually paid dividends when in the 55′ minute Wolves’ defender Jack Keating appeared to block a fast-finishing Travis Major. Again, the referee pointed straight to the spot and Major converted to lock the score up at one a piece. 
The Wolves had fought hard to this point and were determined not to let the game slip away, and it was just moments later when Keating made amends by pouncing on a loose ball following a Blacktown City attacking corner where the Wolves right side defender tore off down the right side of the field to create a three-on-two scenario. Keating delivered a perfect pass to substitute Joseph Lavalle, who had only been on the field for a matter of minutes, where he slammed the ball into the back of the net to put the Wolves back in front.
In what seemed to be a goal-fest opening to the second period, Blacktown City hit back almost immediately when a Sean Rooney special – some 35-metres out from goal – dipped just at the right moment to prevent Collison from tipping the ball over the bar to lock the scores up once again.
Both teams continued to pepper the goal mouth with chances for the remainder of the match, but for every opportunity Blacktown City created the Wolves hit back at the other end only to be denied by some brilliant saves by both goalkeepers.
“I’m happy to come away with the point, but it sure feels like a bit of a loss right now given the opportunities we had,” Wolves coach Richard Lloyd lamented to Football NSW.
“We came here with a mission of getting a point from this game and we achieved that so we can tick the box there, so you could say that I’m pretty happy overall. We started off great and I think that we looked quite solid up to half-time.
“They [Blacktown City FC] changed it up when they were 1-0 down after the break where they pushed an extra player forward obviously looking for the three points at home. It’s something that we have to work on when teams change their tactics like they did, so we’ll take that out of today’s game.”
A brutally honest Blacktown City coach Mark Crittenden was less praiseful in his team’s performance.
“Disappointing pretty well sums our performance out there today, but a draw is probably a fair result,” claimed Crittenden.
“Our opening 10′ minutes was very poor – we’ve been starting a lot of our games slowly and then working our way into them, but today we started slowly and continued in that vein the whole first-half … our possession with the ball in particular was extremely poor.
“I was happy with how we played in the opening 10′ minutes of the second-half – very happy in fact, but when they [Wolves] broke away from our corner and ran the length of the field to score, that shows that our attitude wasn’t quite right today.
“We’ve got Sydney Olympic away next week and that’s always a hard task so we’ve got to move forward and prepare for that and hopefully improve on what we did wrong here today.” 
Looking ahead to the Round 3 Easter blockbuster bonanza; Blacktown City FC will be hoping for a return to the winner’s circle when they travel to Belmore Sports Ground next Sunday to take on highly fancied Sydney Olympic while the Wolves are at home next Saturday night as they look to get their first win of the season when they host Sydney United 58 FC at John Crehan Park.
Match Stats
Blacktown City FC 2 (Travis Major 50’ pen, Sean Rooney 58’)
South Coast Wolves 2 (Ricky Zucco 42’ pen, Joseph Lavalle 55’)
Saturday 23rd March, 2013
Lily Homes Stadium, Seven Hills
Referee: Kevin Peddie
Assistant Referees: Mitch Clarke and Thomas Lee
Fourth Official: Sam Grasso
Blacktown City FC: 1.Brodey Crane; 3.Andrea Del Brocco, 4.Yianni Fragogiannis, 5.Patrick Gatt, 6.Matthew Lewis, 7.Travis Major, 8.Raymond Miller, 10.Harry Gaitatzis (9.Ryuji Miyazawa 65’), 11.Sean Rooney (18.Osadolor Edosomwan 82’), 12.Kearyn Baccus, 15.Matthew Mayora (19.Zachary Cairncross 46’)
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Blake Tuxford
Yellow Cards: Harry Gaitatzis 23’, Travis Major 66’
Red Cards: Nil
South Coast Wolves: 1.Daniel Collison; 2.Jack Keating, 4.Michael Robinson, 6.Chris Nathaniel, 7.Chris Price, 10.Ricky Zucco (5.James Baldacchino 73’), 11.John Martinoski (12.Joseph Lavalle 52’), 14.Mitchell Del Turco, 18.Zachary Mackenzie 21.Sam Matthews, 26.Jacob Timpano,
Substitutes Not Used: 3.Sam Chapple, 20.Thomas Hamilton
Yellow Cards: Mitchell Del Turco 4’, Jack Keating 55’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:

3 – Matthew Lewis (BCFC)
2 – Jack Keating (SCW)
1 – Mitchell Del Turco (SCW)
 -By Gary McDonald