Mariners Academy grind out gutsy win over Spartans
They haven’t given their home fans anything to cheer about for a little over two months, but the Central Coast Mariners Academy held on for a gutsy 2-1 win over Blacktown Spartans at a picturesque Pluim Park to record just their second win of the season at home.
Inconsistencies have plagued Blacktown Spartans throughout much of their 2013 IGA National Premier League NSW Mens 1 campaign, and their Round 19 clash against Central Coast Mariners Academy proved to be no different, as despite an abundance of realistic chances late in the game, the Spartans will make the long trek back to Rooty Hill ruing the amount of missed opportunities.
The Spartans, who controlled much of the proceedings throughout the opening stanza, continued to play havoc early on with their speedy forwards out wide in Corey Biczo on the left and Greg Kondek on the right who had the Mariners Academy defence stretched on a number of occasions.
Kondek had the first chance to open the visitors’ account when in the 8’ minute he was on the receiving end of a nicely delivered ball into the right side of the box. Working with an acute angle, the livewire Spartans forward needed a perfect shot to convert, but despite the attempt Kondek’s effort sailed wide of the mark and failed to trouble Mariners Academy goalkeeper David Bradasevic.
The Spartans continued to play within their opposition’s third and pressed hard every time a turnover occurred. Kondek, Biczo and Daniel Wilkinson pounced on anything, and on the odd occurrence when a ball was turned over to the Mariners Academy, all three retreated with intent and defended with purpose.
Despite the weight of possession early on to the visiting side, neither goalkeeper was tested throughout the opening 20’ minutes, and it wasn’t until a Tyson Rhodes header on goal in the 23’ minute, after some great lead up work from teammates Biczo and Luke Austin, that Bradasevic was called into action – making a great reflex save down low to his right.
However, it was the Mariners Academy who drew first blood through the energetic Bradley McDonald when a defensive corner was quickly turned into brilliant attacking flair that saw the ball in the back of the net at the other end of the field.
The 28’ minute goal to the Mariners Academy had the small, but energetic crowd up on their feet applauding the efforts of McDonald & Co. who had been under sustained pressure up until that point. McDonald, in particular, deserved all of the accolades as it was he who had gained control deep inside his own penalty-area following the Spartans corner, which, in fact, could have ended up in the back of the Mariners Academy net if Tyson Rhodes’s attempted header on goal had of connected.
McDonald’s quick thinking pass out of danger found an ever-alert Pellegrino who travelled some 35-metres down field with the ball before linking up again with McDonald who showed a clean pair of heels to head for goal and slot the ball past Spartans goalkeeper Carlos Saliadarre.
The Mariners Academy, who sprang to life after their unlikely goal, could have doubled their lead in the 36’ minute when McDonald was in the thick of the action once again. A long range throw from the right deep inside the Spartans defensive zone was neatly flicked on to an awaiting McDonald whose curled shot, despite some heavy marking from the Spartans backs, was powerfully delivered around his opponent and narrowly missed the right post by a matter of inches.
It took the Spartans the best part of the remaining time in the opening half to regroup following the shock goal conceded, but it was Kondek, who, having switched to the left side in an effort to ebb out an equaliser, almost paid immediate dividends when he crossed a sweetener for Wilkinson.
The Spartans centre striker, checked his run, launched into midair and delivered a powerfully driven volley, albeit way over the crossbar, but the effort shown certainly gave the Mariners Academy notice that the visitors were back on song.
Just a week earlier the Mariners Academy conceded two goals against Marconi within a whisker of half-time, and then a third within 30’’ seconds of the resumption of play in the second period.
However, this week the Mariners Academy managed to keep their opponents at bay to close out the first-half with a one goal advantage, and when play resumed, it was the home side who almost turned the tables on their unfortunate opponents in the opening few seconds of the new half when Pellegrino caught the defence napping.
A great ball from the centre of the field by Matthew Crowell found Pellegrino unmarked out on the left. The Mariners Academy striker’s skill and speed bamboozled the Spartans would-be defenders to then send a perfectly-weighted ball to the far post where an awaiting Jed Prater, who showed some speed of his own, narrowly missed getting his head on the cross which would have signified a perfect start to the second-half for the home side.
Seemingly shocked into action, the Spartans managed to dust off their half-time cobwebs and launched an attack of their own in the 48’ minute when a low shot on target by Kondek was difficult for Bradasevic to contain and thankfully for the home side rebounded wide off the keeper and out of harm’s way.
Danger signs again rang loud and clear for the Mariners Academy when a Luke Austin corner in the 52’ minute found the height of the dangerous Wilkinson whose neatly angled header sailed just left of its intended mark.
Like two prized fighters going toe-to-toe, the second-half was in stark contrast to the first with end-to-end action thrilling the crowd who had bathed in the warm sunshine all afternoon, and it wasn’t until the 72’ minute when a crack eventually opened in the Spartans arsenal.
A brilliantly delivered free-kick deep into the Spartans penalty box had Saliadarre committed, and when a number of attackers and defenders all converged, it was anyone’s ball, but it did fall the Mariners Academy way and it was Kieron Stallard who had come up for the set play who delivered the ball into the back of the visitors’ net and double his side’s lead.
The dust had barely settled on the melee that was the second of the Mariners Academy’s goals when in the 77’ minute the Spartans cut the lead back to a solitary goal after Biczo brought the ball down nicely at the top of the box and slammed the ball home on a long-range shot that seemed to catch the Mariners Academy goalkeeper unawares.
The Spartans goal had an immediate and dramatic effect on the game, and it was the visitors who appeared from that point on to come home with all guns blazing to control the remainder of the game with a plethora of opportunities.
But it was in the dying seconds of added injury time the Spartans had perhaps their best, and final, chance of the game to snare an equaliser. The attacking prowess of the Spartans forwards got in behind the Mariners Academy defensive line time and time again, but it was the 90’+3’ minute cross from the left to an unmarked Tyson Rhodes lurking on the left post that had the crowd all gasping in unison.
Rhodes, who had pushed up high for the sole purpose of having an additional Spartans forward, needed only to tap the ball into the back of the net, but the Spartans imposing central defender miscued his shot and watched helplessly as his attempted shot bobbled wide of the post.
Full credit though must go to the home side for the resilience shown, especially in the final quarter of the game, as they held out for the win to lift themselves off the bottom of the table by leapfrogging recent Waratah Cup winners APIA-Leichhardt, and most importantly, amass a number of highly valuable championship points.
“I thought we played well today, but we’ve also played better this year and not got a result,” conceded Mariners Academy coach Mark Jones shortly after his side’s win.
“Today we only conceded the one goal and a long-range one at that. We’ve conceded far too many goals this season and we needed to tighten our defence and I thought we did that nicely today.
“I think that with tightening those defensive efforts it probably cost us a little in attack compared to our more attractive style of play, although we certainly had our opportunities to go further ahead, and with 2-0 up with 15’ minutes to go we should have closed the game out, but we like to make things interesting.
“I was very happy with our defensive effort, in particular our two centre backs who were great in the air – in fact all of our backs were outstanding in the air and Pellegrino, McDonald and Payne laid the platform up front while Nathan Verity was strong all over the park and really embellishes what this club is all about.”
Spartans coach Ben De Haan was philosophical in his side’s effort:
“I think that the last section of that game we had something like thirty shots on goal, and to miss that last minute tap-in on the far post was tough to take,” claimed a disappointed De Haan.
“We had pushed Tyson [Rhodes] up there [from central defender] to create the extra man with that sole purpose of scoring and I really thought he had it there at the end, but that’s how it goes I guess.
“For them to score that first goal against us from our corner and to race down field to score at the other end, well that’s fair enough we can work on those areas, but we had at least seven chances where we should have scored today.
“It’s been like that for a few of our recent games and it’s really hard to take as we could be vying for a semi-finals spot right now but unfortunately we’re not … we don’t concede many goals, but we just can’t seem to score them either.”
With just three regular season rounds remaining in the IGA National Premier League NSW Mens 1 Competition, the Mariners Academy were sitting precariously close to the relegation zone – ten points adrift of nearest rival South Coast Wolves – in the ‘Senior’ Club Championship table as they headed into this weekend’s Round 19 clash. However, with the Wolves going down in both the Under 20s and 1st Grade, the Mariners Academy has all but sliced that deficit.
In the hope of bolstering their much-needed championship points, the Central Coast-based side travel down the F3 next Sunday afternoon to take on the resurgent Manly United FC whose late season form has been impressive in recent times. With their penultimate clash the following week against the stuttering Rockdale City Suns, Mark Jones’s men then round out the competition proper with a Round 22 jaunt into the heart of the Wolves den at Hooka Creek Park on the South Coast in what is looming as the clash of the season for both teams as they desperately cling on to dear life in the hope of avoiding relegation.
Blacktown Spartans may very well look back on last week’s disappointing Round 18 draw against the lowly-placed APIA-Leichhardt as the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of an unlikely semi-finals charge. Still a mathematical chance of securing a Top Five berth coming into this game, the Spartans, now out of the semi-finals running, will look to finish on a high in all three remaining rounds, and with clashes set against competition heavyweights Sutherland Sharks (next Saturday evening), Blacktown City (Round 21) and Sydney United 58 FC (Round 22) Ben De Haan’s squad need to improve throughout the month of August.
Match Stats
Central Coast Mariners Academy 2 (Bradley McDonald 28’, Kieran Stallard 72’)
Blacktown Spartans 1 (Corey Biczo 77’)
Sunday July 28th, 2013
Pluim Park
Referee: Kris Griffiths Jones
Assistant Referees: Nicholas Backo and Thomas Lee
Fourth Official: James Tesoriero
Central Coast Mariners Academy: 20.David Bradasevic; 2.Matthew Crowell, 3.Jamie Lobb, 4.Kieron Stallard, 6.Christopher Payne (8.Daniel Bragg 80’), 7.Adriano Pellegrino, 16.Jed Prater (5.Brady Smith 67’), 22.Liam O’Dell, 23.Bradley McDonald, 24.Nathan Verity, 26.Ridge Mapu
Substitutes Not Used: 1.Jordan Nikolovski, 11.Louis Bozanic, 13.Joshua Forbes
Yellow Cards: Ridge Mapu 65’, Bradley McDonald 84’
Red Cards: Nil
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre; 2.Luke Austin, 3.Nathan Millgate, 5.Daniel Wilkinson (30.Kieran Dalton 65’) 6.Gregory Kondek, 10.Bryan Soane, 11.Tyson Rhodes, 14.Trent Barton (22.Pasquale Polistina 61’), 16.Emmanual Giannaros, 25.Corey Biczo, 38.Zachary Freeburn
Substitutes Not Used: 20.Luke Turnbull, 24.Reid Taylor, 32.Luke Jenner
Yellow Cards: Daniel Wilkinson 26’
Red Cards: Nil
-By Gary McDonald
