Stallions ‘pip’ Mariners to march further up the ladder
Marconi Stallions has continued its impressive run of form with a tough 1-0 victory over Central Coast Mariners Academy at Pluim Park on Saturday night.
The game was physically intense from start to finish and both sides held their own in the fifty-fifty challenges. It was clear the Mariners Academy side were eager to pick up their first win of the campaign but had a difficult task against a rapidly improving Marconi who made the most of its road trip.
The Stallions looked sharp as they held most of the field position for large portions of the match and constantly pressured the Central Coast backline. Despite a few close calls, the structure remained intact to confidently see out any threats on goal in the first stanza.
20’ minutes in, the Mariners Academy goalkeeper was caught off guard after the Stallions’ danger man Milorad Simonovic broke down the right side and whipped in a cross. Jordan Nikolovski was hesitant to come off his line and flailed his right glove at the ball, which evaded the chance from a lurking Sean O’Connell.
Both sides were quick to utilise the width of the newly turfed Pluim Park and the Coast’s Brady Smith was doing a great job distributing to his wingers Joel Hardwick and Ridge Mapu.
The robust encounter took its toll on both teams in the injury plagued first-half resulting in early substitutions as Marconi’s Shane Webb limped off in the 9’ minute and Central Coast Academy lost their skipper, Matthew Crowell 15’ minutes later.
As the half drew to an end Marconi continued to push closer and closer to nudging the scorers – Anthony Proia was inflicting majority of the damage.
In the final 10’ minutes of the first period, Proia pushed a shot just to the right of Nikolovski’s upright and shortly after leapt above the pack from a corner to head just wide of the target.
Central Coast’s first chance of the half arrived in the 43’ minute as Mapu used his pace to get around and behind the Stallions’ defence and drilled in a low cross to Louis Bozanic who was shut down by defence to end the half a scoreless draw.
Marconi’s intentions were clear as they ran out for the second-half and mounted most of their attack down the right wing as Jared Lum linked up well with Tadhg Purcell.
Similar to the first period; Marconi dominated field position and the Mariners continued to hold on but there was just no answers up front for the home side.
Technically, and physically, the Mariners Academy side were contesting well with the Marconi line up but they just lacked a target man in the final third.
Looking for an answer and a tactical advantage, coach Mark Jones injected James Monie off the bench to provide a physical presence and fresh legs up front. The impact was immediate and in the 63’ minute, Monie ran onto a loopy through ball to chest down inside the area although his shot was wide.
However it was the away side that found the winner through Anthony Proia who again leapt above the rest and did very well to pass his attempt by Nikolovski. The Mariners shot-stopper threw everything at the save and pushed the ball onto the post but unfortunately it had enough on it to roll over the line in the 66’ minute.
Proia should have doubled the lead and his tally 5’ minutes later as the resilient striker picked up a defensive lapse and, with just the goalkeeper to beat, he drilled his shot wide.
The Mariners had a big chance to level the scores as substitute Adam Woodbine’s first touch of the match on the right side of the box produced an emphatic cross that landed on the volley of Tomislav Cirjak. Cirjak hit his shot with plenty of venom but blasted it well over the crossbar.
Goal scorer Anthony Proia was happy to bag the winner away from home:
“It’s always a tough making the two hour trip to the Central Coast but congrats and full credit to the boys who worked hard and really deserved it.
“We are on a roll now so we’ve got the momentum. Obviously at the start we had a few players out and we’ve got them all back now so hopefully the momentum rolls on and we can pick up a few more wins.
“The Mariners side were real strong and played out from the back heaps which kept me busy. They were a physical side and I am coming back from a cork but I pulled up fine which is good.”
Central Coast goalkeeper Jordan Nikolovski put in a big performance and was disappointed to come away without a point:
“I am a bit shattered after that one, we dominated parts of the game, the boys got stuck in and played very well for 90’ minutes and it’s just a shame to concede that one goal.”
“The video session before the match was a bit of a motivation for the boys to get us going for this game and give us a bit of a kick up the bum.
“It was a bit unfortunate because I got a full glove to it [the goal] but off the post and went in, instead of out, bad luck and that’s just the way we’re going this season.
“Mate we need to stick to our guns because we have done well this week and when we stop conceding we will start winning games.
It was a tough night for the Mariners Academy boys who tried their hearts out but they just couldn’t find that last piece of magic to equalise with the Stallions.
Match Stats
Central Coast Mariners Academy 0
Marconi Stallions 1 (Anthony Proia 66’)
Saturday April 27th, 2013
Pluim Park
Referee: Adam Susz
Assistant Referees: Robert Klein and Robson Battistella
Fourth Official: Karl Davies
Central Coast Mariners Academy: 1.Jordan Nikolovski; 2.Matthew Crowell (8.Daniel Bragg 30’), 3.Jamie Lobb, 5.Brady Smith, 7.Scott Pettit (9.James Monie 59’), 10.Tomislav Cirjak,11.Louis Bozanic (38.Adam Woodbine 77’), 14.Joel Hardwick, 22.Liam O’Dell, 24.Nathan Verity, 26.Ridge Mapu
Substitutes Not Used:16.Jed Prater, 20.Beyhan Irmako,
Yellow Cards: 11.Louis Bozanic
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions: 22.James, Chronopoulos; 2.Mitchell Thompson, 3.Ali Haydar, 4.Umut Tokdogan, 6.Shane Webb (18.Jake McGing 9’), 7.Sean O’Connell, 8.Jared Lum,10.Milorad Simonovic, 11.Anthony Proia, 17.Tadhg Purcell (23.Christopher Nunes 88’), 26.Nahuel Arrarte
Substitutes Not Used: 15.Wade Oostendorp, 16.Mark Cindric,
Yellow Cards: 4.Umut Tokdogan
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Anthony Proia (MS)
2 – Sean O’Connell (MS)
1 – Jordan Nikolovski (CCMA)
-By Tyson Scott
