Clinical Spartans steal win over toothless Tigers
A stubborn Blacktown Spartans held off a dominant APIA-Leichhardt Tigers before snatching two late goals and subsequently a 2-0 win at Lambert Park on Sunday afternoon.
With their backs to the wall the visitors twice hit the Tigers on the break in the final quarter of an hour with Andre Carle netting for the third match in a row before Damir Prodanovic came off the bench to seal victory with a late second.
The hosts will be left to lament missing a series of clear-cut chances in both halves yet aside from the lacking that finishing touch in the final third they performed amicably well across the park and were unfortunate not to take anything from today’s match.
Brimming with confidence after having netted a superb hat-trick against Sydney Olympic last weekend, anchor man Luke Austin looked hungry to continue his rich vein of scoring as he pulled out an early attempt to beat Simon Jaeger from the edge of the box however he sent his first effort straight into the debutant goalkeeper’s safe hands.
Stephen Kayes did well to make space for himself at the other end minutes later when he burst past Corey Bizco and Luka Dukic on the right flank before delivering a dangerous cross into the box; Nikola Taneski got his head onto the ball only to head well over the crossbar.
Jun Kato set up a decent opportunity for Bryan Soane soon after when his first time pass laid a cross from the right wing into Soane’s path yet the advanced midfielder couldn’t get his strike on target slicing it well wide.
Tigers soon settled into their stride and began to dictate the tempo of the game on their familiar home turf.
The first clear chance of the match was served up to Keith Shevlin midway through the half as Kayes rocketed a driven cross across the 6-yard box; Shevlin couldn’t find the controlled header required to knock the ball in as he glanced the ball wide to let Spartans off the hook.
Shevlin again failed to hit the target minutes later when he ran onto Franco Parisi’s threaded through ball only to knock an unconvincing shot past the onrushing Carlos Saliadarre, allowing the visiting backline to collect and clear the ball.
Chances were few and far between for the remainder of the half as a tense midfield battle combined with solid defending restricted both sides to long range efforts
There were shouts for a penalty for the hosts late in the half when Luka Dukic and Nikola Taneski duelled for a long ball; the latter went down under Dukic’s shoulder to shoulder challenge yet referee Michael Weiner correctly waved play on.
Taneski and Dukic went head to head again soon after when Taneski stole possession on the left flank; Dukic was able to get back in time to block Taneski’s shot, taking all the pace off his effort to give Saliadarre the simplest of saves as the sides went into the interval all square.
Tigers’ player-manager Nicola Rizzo looked to spark his attack into life by injecting Korean import Jin Sung Lee into the left side of his attack; the move almost paid off within minutes when Lee cut inside from the left flank and unleashed a glorious 25-yard strike that curled and dipped over Saliadarre only to strike the crossbar and bounce clear.
The hosts continued to press forward and appeared well on top of Spartans at stages yet the stubborn visiting defence held firm time and time again.
Spartans’ coach Ben DeHaan looked to change things up as he withdrew Daniel Wilkinson to bring in the pace of Adam Jenner into his attack while Rizzo substituted himself into Tigers’ attack soon after.
Lee continued to find joy on the left flank and created another chance for himself midway through the half only for Austin to make a crucial deflection to turn the ball away for a corner.
The Korean winger continued to wreak havoc and had claims for a penalty waved away after he was felled in the visitor’s box.
While the Tigers remained in control the Spartans continued to absorb everything they threw at them while looking to hit the hosts on the counterattack; these tactics allowed them to break forward and open the scoring with a quarter hour remaining.
Carle timed his run perfectly to meet an inch-perfect through ball and dart clear of the Tigers’ defensive line; Jaeger stood tall and perhaps reacted a little too late to get down to Carle’s low shot that went straight through his arms and bobbled into the back of the net.
Now in search of an equaliser rather than an opener the Tigers continued to press forward yet the visitors defended in numbers to block their route to goal.
In pressing forward the hosts left themselves exposed at the back and were let off the hook when Kato sliced a shot from 25-yards wide however Spartans were not to be denied on their next counterattack.
In the dying minutes the hosts again turned over possession in attack after committing numbers forward; Soane outpaced Rizzo to the ensuing clearance before darting clear, skipping past Jaeger, and centring the ball to give substitute Prodanovic the simplest of finishes as he passed the ball into an open goal against his former club to wrap up the scoring.
Tigers were left to rue their missed opportunities and ponder what may have been after experiencing this match getting away from them despite their positive play throughout the ninety minutes.
While disappointed with the result Tiger’s player-manager Nicola Rizzo credited his players for their positive performance after witnessing his side control sizeable portions of this afternoon’s match:
“The score line does not reflect the game at all,” said Rizzo.
“I think we had about four or five clear cut chances and we played by far the better football but unfortunately goals win matches and we didn’t take our chances.
“I think they had one chance when they went up and scored a bit of a soft goal and that was game over.
“Luck doesn’t seem to be on our side at the moment but I can’t fault the performance, I can’t fault the work ethic, and I can’t fault anything really other than the fact that we didn’t score.
“Other than that I was very happy with my boys.”
Tigers’ poor form in front of goal has been a concern for Rizzo since taking the helm in recent weeks and the club are looking for a solution to their problem sooner rather than later:
“I think goal scoring has been an issue,” explained Rizzo.
“That’s why we tried to mix it up a bit today.
“We’ve got Nick Tanevski who’s a young boy that’s done well, we probably need someone else to help him and that’s why we played Shev – Keith Shevlin up front as well – he had a decent game as well but we just can’t seem to put the ball in the net at the moment.
“I think that’s our biggest problem and it’s something that the club is looking at but you know we’ll keep working and as I said I still think it’s a very good squad, I think it needs probably one or two players.
“I think you can tell by the performance that we’re creating chances and I don’t think we looked like conceding at any time other than the time we did.
“It was a bit of a soft goal – I’m not sure if it went under Simon (Jaeger)’s hands – but irrespective we’ve got to take our chances otherwise we just keep pressuring ourselves.”
Spartans coach Ben DeHaan was delighted to see his side come away with the win in what was a tough match for his side in which they found themselves on the back foot for extended periods:
“We were definitely under the pressure,” said DeHaan.
“We played well on the counter and had a few opportunities there towards the end where I thought we could have knocked in a few more.
“All in all we’ll take the three points and we’re glad to get that out of this pitch.
“It’s very hard to play here with the bobble and everything so we planned to just absorb it and hit them on the counter.
“I was worried when we started to miss chances in front of goal but it was good to see the second one get sunk to get us out of here.”
Match Stats
APIA Leichhardt Tigers 0
Blacktown Spartans 2 (Andre Carle 75’, Damir Prodanovic 88’)
Sunday April 28th, 2013
Lambert Park, Leichhardt
Referee: Michael Weiner
Assistant Referees: Robson Battistella and Paul Faithfull
Fourth Official: Lachlan Keevers
APIA Leichhardt Tigers: 1.Simon Jaeger; 2.Mark Byrnes, 3.Adel El Jamal, 5.Michael West, 7.Stephen Kayes, 8.David D’Apuzzo, 10.Franco Parisi, 12.Keith Shevlin, 15.Bradley Bartels, 16.Sean Symons (6.Jin Sung Lee 51’), 18.Nikola Taneski (11.Nicola Rizzo 71’)
Substitutes Not Used: 4.Brendan Reilly, 19.Adamo Raciti, 40.Lucas North
Yellow Cards: Mark Byrnes 40’, Bradley Bartels 49’
Red Cards: Nil
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre; 2.Luke Austin, 4.Luka Dukic, 5.Daniel Wilkinson (17. Luke Jenner 65’), 6.Greg Kondek (3.Damir Prodanovic 75’), 7.Andre Carle, 8.Brenton Rhodes, 9.Jun Kato, 10.Bryan Soane, 25.Corey Biczo, 38.Zac Freeburn
Substitutes Not Used: 11.Tyson Rhodes, 20.Luke Turnbull, 22.Pasquale Polistina
Yellow Cards: Luke Austin 71’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Stephen Kayes (ALT)
2 – Andre Carle (BS)
1 – Jun Sung Lee (ALT)
-By Michael Shoolman
