Spartans hat-trick of wins a first for the club

Blacktown Spartans hosted Central Coast Mariners Academy on a blustery Saturday evening at Blacktown Football Park, and the side sent their supporters home happy with a very impressive 4-0 win.
The Academy’s passing game in the early stages was crisp and speedily despatched but the final ball was often left wanting although they did force the first corner of the evening in the fifth minute that Carlos Saliadarre took two attempts to gather between the sticks.
Greg Kondek made Jordan Nikolovski work in the Mariners goal before a swift counterattack saw Tommy Cirjak fire into the Spartans side netting in just the 8’ minute of the game, a sign of things to comer perhaps.
Scott Pettit was put through and showed his marker a clean pair of heels in the 14’ minute that eventuated in a shot across Saliadarre, the shot-stopper managed to push away with his right hand at full stretch to prevent a certain goal as the visitors upped the tempo and took the game to Blacktown.
Indeed, it was Central Coast who looked the sharper during the opening quarter by winning most of the 50/50 contests with thanks to match official Kurt Ams for allowing the game to flow freely.
The Spartans fought back and from a free-kick the ball fell to Nathan Millgate who controlled with his first touch and delicately curled the ball with his second but sadly for the big defender it slipped narrowly over the bar in the 19’ minute.
Stoppage time was required in the 29’ minute when Ridge Mapu of the Mariners chased down a ball that Saliadarre came for with the goalkeeper coming off second best after a head knock with the player and one of his own defenders. The shot-stopper however was able to continue after a few minutes treatment with Luke Turnbull rapidly warming up on the sideline in case required.
Andre Carle, for the Spartans, received the first caution of the game when being adjudged to illegally tackling Brady Smith from behind in the 35’ minute in an incident quite out of keeping with an otherwise tense but thoroughly entertaining match between two sides with plenty to play for.
Greg Kondek talked himself into the next caution (for dissent against official Ams) and was shortly followed by the Academy number 5 Brady Smith for another tackle from behind in what had not been a dirty match. Smith was shown a second in stoppage time at the end of the half, and it cost not only his services for the evening but a penalty that was duly tucked away by Luke Austin to give the home side the lead going into the break.
Blacktown looked to soak up the pressure during the opening period and let the Mariners wear themselves down so the sending off was a bonus and only time would tell if they would now be able to capitalise on the numerical superiority and open up their visitors in the remaining 45’ minutes of play.
Jun Kato looked to heap further misery on the Academy but fired over in the opening minute of the half as the Spartans took the fight to their guests but it wasn’t long before the lead was extended when Kondek played the ball unselfishly across to Carle to power into an empty net.
Nikolovski was keeping his side in the game by forcing a Millgate effort over for a corner but the ball was floated in by Austin it was met by the head of Greg Kondek who made no mistake in making it three-nil to the Spartans as they made certain of the points and continued to press for more goals.
Blacktown were running the show but Central Coast were putting in the hard yards to keep the score to a respectable level which, in fact, until the red card had never looked like eventuating.
Central Coast were hassled and harried into giving up the midfield which paid further dividends for the Spartans who added a fourth goal through Bryan Soane from another set-piece, corner, allowing the victors the luxury of playing out the final minutes in comfort.
The Academy thought they had a consolation in stoppage time but it was disallowed for offside on a night when nothing went right for them.
A delighted Spartans coach Ben De Haan enthused afterwards:
“I suppose the send-off did have a bit to do with the win but I thought we controlled the game well without too much pressure on us.
“It was a little bit hard with them sitting back and just coming at us on the counter but we had the intensity and took our chances well tonight and we perhaps should have had a couple more but at the end of the day we’ve got the three points and we have to be happy with that.
“We had the better of the play overall and created the better openings and I thought it was only a matter of time before we broke them down, I was pretty confident about that so it was just one of those things where we drove and they had a lad sent-off but I don’t think it would have changed the outcome.”
In time honoured fashion, a hat-trick of wins, a first in the history of the club at this level but it’s a case of week by week:
“Yeah it’s really a case of taking each game as it comes. We’ve given ourselves a platform to build on and we just have to push on from where we are and look no further than taking on Sutherland next week.”
Mark Jones replied for the Mariners adding:
“I thought we did particularly well in the first-half but like you said, we had a couple of opportunities and didn’t take them and that is our problem at the moment, we can’t score goals. We’ve only scored three and that’s not good enough and we probably need to go on the market and get ourselves a good striker.
“The send-off was ill-disciplined and it was a card giving the ref no choice and then going down the goal was tough so we needed to change a few things at the break and we thought we might be able to sit in during the first 30’ or 35’ minutes of the second and have a dash at the end.
“However, we got caught for another couple of goals after a little amount of the half being caught out three on two at the back because we’ve over committed and the game is over.
“It’s a tough learning curve for the guys but we don’t want to stack the side with over-age players as that defeats what we are trying to achieve which is bringing youngsters on for the youth and A-League sides and tonight we had a 15-year old on the park and I thought he did ok to be honest.
“We were never really outplayed but that lack of experience has cost us but we have to accept that if they are to progress and learn.
“That’s 7-games for us without a win and other teams have lost that many straight and gone on to bigger and better (said with tongue firmly in cheek) so we’ll keep going without changing the philosophy too much and take it from there.”
Match Stats
Blacktown Spartans 4 (Luke Austin 45’+2’, Andre Carle 52’, Greg Kondek 59’, Bryan Soane 76’)
Central Coast Mariners Academy 0
Saturday 4th May 2013
Blacktown Football Park, Rooty Hill
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant Referees: Michelle Allen and Sarah Ho
Fourth Official: Katie Patterson
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre (C); 2.Luke Austin (19.Simon Zahra 76’), 3.Nathan Millgate, 4.Luka Dukic, 6.Greg Kondek, 7.Andre Carle (5.Damir Prodanovic 70’), 8.Brenton Rhodes, 9.Jun Kato, 10.Bryan Soane, 25.Corey Biczo (11.Tyson Rhodes 84’), 38.Zac Freeburn
Substitutes Not Used: 14.Luke Jenner, 20.Luke Turnbull
Yellow Cards: Carle 35’, Austin 41’
Red Cards: Nil
Central Coast Mariners Academy: 1.Jordan Nikolovski; 3.Jamie Lobb (C), 4.Joel Hardwick, 5.Brady Smith, 7.Scott Pettit (11.Louis Bozanic 71’), 8.Daniel Bragg, 10.Tom Cirjak, 22.Liam O’Dell, 24.Nathan Verity (37.Daniel McFarlane 74’), 26.Mapu Ridge, 30.Adam Woodbine (18.Dean Caletti 57’)
Substitutes Not Used: 9.James Monie, 20.Beyhan Irmako
Yellow Cards: Smith 43’, 45’+1’, Verity 70’, Bozanic 76’
Red Cards: Smith 45’+1’
Player Ratings:
3 – Greg Kondek (BS)
2 – Carlos Saliadarre (BS)
1 – Tom Cirjak (CCMA)
-By Micky Brock