Blacktown City FC shut out Marconi with decisive win

Blacktown City FC’s purple patch continued on Saturday evening after yet another dominating performance over a stuttering Marconi at Lily Homes Stadium following a decisive 3-0 win.
From the onset the home side was never really troubled as coach Mark Crittenden’s men appeared to pick up where they left off a week earlier when they upset competition front-runners Sydney United 58 FC to further consolidate their arrival as a premiership favourite.
The game was barely 6’ minutes old when a Blacktown City FC set play from a free-kick just outside of the penalty box saw goal scoring whiz Harris Gaitatzis test Marconi keeper James Chronopoulos for the first of what would turn out to a very busy night for the Marconi custodian.
3′ minutes later Chronopoulos was called on once again when Blacktown City FC’s Sean Rooney produced a nice through ball to an ever-alert Matthew Mayora who was only denied by a quick thinking Chronopoulos who reacted without any thought of self-preservation and smothered the ball mere inches from the readied boot of Mayora.
The 13’ minute brought opposing keeper Brody Crane into the mix in what could have easily led to an assisted goal at the other end for his Blacktown City FC side. An innocuous save by Crane in front of his own goal mouth caught the Marconi defence high which Crane was immediately aware of and, coupled with a perfectly executed drop-kick, found Mayora one-on-one with a Marconi defender deep into Marconi’s half of the field. Mayora, facing his own goal, controlled the ball with a text-book first touch off the chest, dummied to the left to fool the rapidly approaching defence, then opened to the right to pull off a power shot that had an outstretched Chronopoulos well and truly beaten, only to be denied by a whisker to the right post.
Marconi’s best chance of the opening stanza came in the 20’ minute when the tireless Jared Lum was brought down just outside Blacktown City’s box. Marconi’s heart and soul in Nahuel Arrarte delivered a lofty ball from the resultant free-kick that caught the defence napping and provided Tadhg Purcell with an unchallenged header that forced keeper Crane into action as he pounced on the loose ball in front of a number of Marconi attackers who were eager to open the scoring for their side.
Lum proved to be a continual thorn in the side for the Blacktown City defenders midway through the first-half and continued to deliver ball-after-ball to his luckless forwards, but it was a brilliant shot on goal from the boot of the Marconi #8 that was only equaled in stature by the diving save made by keeper Crane whose cat-like reflexes somehow managed to tip the ball over the bar.
Despite Marconi’s mini-resurgence, Blacktown City maintained the pressure throughout the opening half and were rewarded twice within the space of 10′ minutes through some excellent lead up work by, firstly, Ryuji Miyazawa who in the 36’ minute unselfishly provided a ball out to an unmarked Gaitatzis lurking on the left where the Blacktown City forward made no mistake in slotting the ball past the keeper to open up the scoring for his side for the second-straight week.
A second goal to the home side right on the stroke of half-time came through some nice team work in the middle where a lofted through ball had the Marconi keeper committed to an aerial duel with Mayora – leaving the visitors’ net exposed – and providing an awaiting Travis Major with a neat shot from the right side to secure his team a two goal advantage at the break.
The second-half was barely a minute old when a mix up by the Marconi defenders in their own goal mouth could have had tragic consequences. Mayora, perhaps with his head still in the sheds following the intermission, found the ball at his feet mere yards from the net, but his hurried ‘skewed shot’ went horribly wide in what could have been the final nail in the coffin for Marconi.
Blacktown City maintained pressure much the same as they had in the first-half and continued to control proceedings, and when a nicely delivered ball from the ever-present Kearyn Baccus in the 53’ minute found a flying Mayora unmarked and rapidly approaching the goal area, an already committed Marconi keeper in Chronopoulos carelessly took down Mayora in a clumsy tackle just inside the penalty area.
The resultant penalty was struck well by Major, but Chronopoulos, perhaps out to make amends for his flimsy tackle only moments earlier, dived to his right to produce an excellent save. Major’s delivery was struck with such vigor that the ball rebounded hard to the feet of an awaiting Sean Mooney who looked certain to score – only to be again denied by the outstretched arms of Chronopoulos.
Blacktown City, unfazed by the missed opportunity continued to control the game and were unlucky not to have scored on a number of occasions throughout the second-half, and it was the brilliance of Mayora who provided the telling blow in the 62’ minute when he set up partner in crime Mooney who made no mistake to ensure that Blacktown would take an unassailable 3-0 lead into the final quarter of the game.
Marconi had a number of opportunities to grab a consolation goal and looked most likely through a barrage of set piece corners on the right side through ‘Bend it like Beckham’ left foot deliveries via Sean O’Connell that had the Blacktown City defenders at ‘sixes and sevens’ as they attempted to diffuse the danger.
However, it was Blacktown City who simply cruised to victory to take all three points on offer and in doing so, sent a message to the rest of the competition to let them know that they are serious title contenders in 2013.
“I think that we looked a little flat out there tonight,” claimed Blacktown City FC coach Mark Cittenden despite his side’s comfortable win.
“We’ve been playing really well of late, but we always seem to have these dour sort of games against Marconi and tonight was no exception.
“You can’t play at the top of your game every week, but we took our chances and we were reasonably clinical up front there, but we were certainly a little lethargic tonight … we’ll take the three points and move on.”
Marconi coach Jean Paul De Marigny was disappointed with his side’s effort, but was full of praise for his goal keeper’s heroics.
“We conceded some cheap goals tonight,” admitted De Marigny to FNSW shortly after the game.
“There were some individuals out there for us tonight who switched off at certain times and did not perform their roles to the best of their ability – and that cost us dearly. In saying that though, our keeper [James Chronopoulos] was one of best out there tonight. He kept us in the game and with the double penalty saves just proves that he is one of the best keepers in our league.”
With just two points separating fourth through to ninth heading into this weekend’s round, it’s a heavily congested IGA National Premier League NSW Mens 1 ladder and it doesn’t get any easier next week for either side as they both sit smack bang in the middle of the logjam. Blacktown City FC take a hop, skip and a jump to the other side of the M2 Motorway for the much anticipated local derby next Saturday evening at Blacktown Football Park against the resurgent Blacktown Spartans FC, while Marconi will be hoping to add to the woes of Sydney United 58 FC’s midseason hiccup as they host Mark Rudan’s men at Marconi Stadium next Sunday.   
Match Stats
Blacktown City FC 3 (Harris Gaitatzis 36’, Travis Major 45’+1’, Sean Rooney 62’)
Marconi Stallions 0
Saturday May 11th, 2013
Lily Homes Stadium, Seven Hills
Referee: Khodr Yaghi
Assistant Referees: Andrej Glev and Luke Burley
Fourth Official: Carl Davies
Blacktown City FC: 1.Brody Crane; 3.Andrea Del Brocco, 4.Yianni Fragogiannis, 5.Pat Gatt, 6.Matt Lewis, 7.Travis Major, 9.Ryuji Miyazawa, 10.Harris Gaitatzis (14.Daniel Araujo 82’), 11.Sean Rooney (8.Ray Miller 71’), 12.Kearyn Baccus, 15.Matthew Mayora
Substitutes Not Used: 13.Blake Tuxford, 18.Dolar Edosomwan, 19.Zach Cairncross
Yellow Cards: Ray Miller 90’
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions: 22.James Chronopoulos; 2.Mitchell Thompson (29.Steven Drewery 70’), 4.Umut Tokdogan (18.Jake McGing 73’), 7.Sean O’Connell, 8.Jared Lum, 10.Milorad Simonovic, 11.Anthony Proia (23.Chris Nunes 46’), 15.Wade Oostendorp, 17.Tadhg Purcell, 19.Damian Travis, 26.Nahuel Arrarte
Substitutes Not Used: 21.Stefan Giglio, 30.Harrison Brown
Yellow Cards: James Chronopoulos 53’, Damian Travis 82’
Red Cards: Nil
Players Ratings:
3 – Matthew Mayora (BCFC)
2 – Kearyn Baccus (BCFC)
1 – Jared Lum (MS)
-By Gary McDonald