IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 ROUND 5 Review

Bonnyrigg White Eagles and Sydney United 58 FC both continued its winning ways with big wins to keep them level at the top of the League ladder.
Elsewhere, Rockdale City Suns made it successive victories with an impressive showing against Manly United FC.
South Coast Wolves finally added its first three-pointer of the season, meanwhile Blacktown Spartans’ slide continued with a loss in the ‘gong’.
The new boys, Central Coast Mariners Academy, fell to a first-up loss in its first home match of the season.
Central Coast Mariners Academy 0 Blacktown City FC 3
Blacktown City FC ruined the ‘party’ for the Central Coast Mariners Academy side in the side’s first home match of the season, at Pluim Park.
A brace to Travis Major in the second-half, following Raymond Miller’s first-half opener, were more than enough to sink the Mariners Academy side 3-0.
Scathing from its draw at APIA-Leichhardt last weekend, and a mixed run of results in the early part of the season, Blacktown City FC were ruthless throughout the encounter.
Yianni Fragogiannis’ fine delivery into the penalty-area midway through the opening half saw Miller convert with aplomb to set the visitors up for a good second-half.
Major, in scintillating form, punished a Mariners defensive blunder on 78’ minute with a phenomenal diagonal effort to beat Jordan Nikolovski.
Major netted his second 3’ minutes from the end. Harris Gaitatzis played a pin-point pass onto Major’s chest before blasting home to round out the 3-0 win.
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 3 Sutherland Sharks 2
Bonnyrigg White Eagles continued its sensational start to the season with a deserved, yet last-ditch, victory against Sutherland Sharks on Saturday evening in-front of its home supporters.
The White Eagles were ruthless in-terms of early possession, though Brian Brown’s men failed to find an opening with Tynan Diaz playing up-front for the absent Robbie Younis.
Sutherland’s best moments arrived via the feet of Panni Nikas. The attacking midfielder was brilliant, even though he picked up a heavy know in the opening period of the match.
After the interval, Nikola Zonjic was on hand to drive home a Mitchell Long square pass after Sharks’ goalkeeper Nathan Denham failed to hold onto a cross from the left.
The Sharks, despite struggling to hold possession in the front-third, found an equaliser via Nathan Elasi shortly after, twisting and turning his way past a group of defenders before coolly slotting past Matthew Nash.
Completely against the run of play, Nikas delivered a magnificent free-kick from the edge of the penalty-area into the top right-hand corner, though the White Eagles equalised 6’ minutes from the end via the penalty-spot courtesy of Diaz – the Bonnyrigg midfielder starting his first match of the season, played in the striker’s position for this clash.
With the White Eagles 100% start to the season seemingly lost, Aaron Peterson stepped up to toe-poke Bonnyrigg to its fifth consecutive win of the season, much to the delight of the jubilant supporters.
South Coast Wolves 2 Blacktown Spartans 1
South Coast Wolves secured its first win of the 2013 season with a hard fought 2-1 defeat of Blacktown Spartans at home on Saturday evening.
John Martinoski grabbed a goal in each half to put his side in control against the Spartans, the visitors forced to fend the entire second-half with only ten-men following the dismissal of Greg Kondek.
Martinoski’s opener arrived following some good build up down the left, the attacking midfielder netting at the second attempt with a fierce finish.
Martinoski’s second was equally impressive, drilling home from the edge of the penalty-area past Carlos Saliadarre.
The Spartans grabbed a consolation via Andre Carle 9’ minutes from the end, though it was too little too late for Ben De Haan’s men. Daniel Wilkinson’s delivery picked out Ott who sent his header inside the far post to make it 2-1.
Sydney Olympic 1 Marconi Stallions 1
In the match-up between two of Australian Football’s most successful club sides, Sydney Olympic and Marconi Stallions shared the spoils.
The Blues opened the encounter with a good spell of possession though it was Marconi that opened the scoring via Milorad Simonovic on 16’ minutes. Simonovic, who missed all of last season due to injury, beat the offside trap before bringing the ball down and blasting the ball underneath goalkeeper Paul Henderson.
The Stallions looked the goods to extend its lead, especially with the fine performance of Simonovic, though it would be the Blues that equalised in the second-half. Ibrahim Haydar’s header on goal was not cleared by the Stallions defence and Elsid Barkhousir was on the spot to poke home from close-range and draw the sides level.
Chances were created at both ends after the goal, though a match winner was not forthcoming.
Sydney Olympic was forced to face the final 11’ minutes with ten-men as Emmanuel Giannaros was sent off for dissent.
Rockdale City Suns 4 Manly United FC 2
An emphatic second-half showing by the Suns saw Rockdale City defeat Manly United FC 4-2 on Sunday afternoon at Ilinden Sports Centre.
Seiya Kawamura opened the scoring after the interval with a fabulous curling effort past Dylan Mitchell in the Manly United goal.
Richard Cardozo doubled the lead shortly after with a well-executed chipped effort over Mitchell.
Max Burgess, in his first season in the top-flight, scored his first goal, in-front of his home fans, to make it 3-0 before Matthew Sim pulled one back with a well-taken free-kick at the other end.
Rockdale City restored the three goal lead from the kick-off through David Talevski with another well-taken finish.
Manly United FC pulled another goal back moments later, this time via Scott Balderson, though a magical comeback was not forthcoming as Branko Culina’s men did exceptionally well to grind out the result.
Some concern surrounds Suns’ new signing Paul Reid who picked up a knock in the first-half before being replaced 30’ minutes from the end. Young substitute Roberto Speranza was sensational in filling the void, adding further claim for more playing time in Suns’ first team.
APIA-Leichhardt Tigers 1 Sydney United 58 FC 5
Sydney United 58 FC handed in a magnificent performance to destroy APIA-Leichhardt Tigers at Lambert Park on Sunday afternoon. The 5-1 final result was well-deserved, the Reds perhaps unlucky not to add a few extra goals to their tally.
Yuichi Yamauchi netted with a magnificent volley moments before the break to send the Reds into the lead before Luka Glavas doubled Sydney United’s lead 1’ minute before the break from the penalty-spot.
Immediately after the restart, Glenn Trifiro’s perfectly floated cross picked out Mitchell Speer who made no mistake in beating Ryan Norval with a fine finish.
APIA-Leichhardt substitute Gerard Ouffoue gave the Tigers’ supporters some hope with a well-taken finish of his own, though any hope of a comeback was short-lived as Glavas netted his second for the afternoon with a typical striker’s finish to beat Norval.
Deep into injury-time, Ante Tomic blasted a 30-yard screamer past Norval to round out the 5-1 result, much to the disappointment of the Tigers’ supporters that stuck around until the end of the match.
-By Joseph Carlucci