Premiership Glory as United 58 FC down Spartans
Sydney United 58 FC capped off a fantastic season with a confident 3-1 win over Blacktown Spartans to take out the Premiership trophy at Blacktown Football Park on Sunday afternoon.
The stars aligned for the visitors as final match day losses to both Sutherland Sharks and Bonnyrigg White Eagles saw United overcome a three-point deduction to reclaim their spot top of the table ahead of next weekend’s finals series.
United had been deducted three-points for fielding an unregistered Liam Reddy in the opening Round of the season, and while an appeal process was under consideration today’s results have curtailed the need for a hearing as United have already returned to the summit.
Luka Glavas set United on their way within the opening minute before Mitchell Stamatellis doubled their advantage with a cracking strike soon after.
Spartans clawed one back via an Ibrahim Haydar own goal only for Glavas to wrap up the 3-1 win before halftime with his second of the match.
The full-time whistle brought widespread celebrations from the travelling fans as United basked in the glory of their successful campaign in the stunningly warm winter weather.
United were in the driver’s seat from the outset as Glavas fired an early warning strike on their first attack to draw a comfortable save from Carlos Saliadarre.
There was little the goalkeeper could do to stop Glavas’ cool finish moments later when the striker slipped in behind Spartans’ defence to calmly tuck the ball inside the near post.
The hosts pushed forward in search of an immediate equaliser, forcing the first corner of the game only to let the opportunity slip and be torn wide open by United’s ensuing countertattack.
The ball broke down the right for Daniel Barac who produced a brilliant cross to find Glavas unmarked; the in-form striker clipped the ball over Saliadarre and was already celebrating until Tyson Rhodes miraculously cleared the ball off the line to keep his side in contention.
The goal-line clearance only seemed to spur United on as they maintained the early pressure and were soon rewarded with their second. Stamatellis took full advantage of a weak clearance to fire a rocket of a goal inside the far post from the edge of the box.
With less than a quarter of an hour gone and with a sizable task on their hands, Spartans began their quest to salvage the contest as they settled their early nerves, found their structure, and began to stroke the ball around their immaculate home turf.
They soon pulled a goal back, albeit via an own goal as Haydar’s outstretched leg turned Nathan Millgate’s dangerous cross past Reddy and into the back of the net.
The early goal flurry soon dried up as both side’s defences began to contend with all that was thrown at them; Spartans’ backline were the busier of the two as they worked as a unit to contain the attacking threats of Glavas, Robert Mileski, and Glen Trifiro.
The hosts also grew in confidence as the match went on with Corey Biczo and Greg Kondek looking sharp while Millgate continued to pose a threat; the humble defender quietly went about his business at the back and also broke forward to good effect when the opportunity presented itself.
Aside from long-range attempts neither side looked like netting until the visitors were handed the chance from the spot kick when Daniel Wilkinson clattered Mileski in the box with an ill-timed challenge.
Glavas stepped up to the spot and saw his original effort bravely blocked by Saliadarre who could only scramble in despair as Glavas reacted quickest to tuck home the rebound to restore his side’s two goal buffer which they held at the interval.
Spartans refused to roll over for their opponents as they hunted for a route back into the match; their best chance fell to Kondek soon after the restart when he connected with Wilkinson’s crossed free kick, however the nomadic midfielder couldn’t keep his finish down as it sailed well over the crossbar.
Glavas continued to torment the Spartans as he intercepted a weak pass out of defence before effortlessly gliding past multiple challenges only to see his casual finish well blocked by Saliadarre; the rebound fell to Trifiro who was denied by Wilkinson who put his body on the line to deflect the playmaker’s effort clear.
The visitors continued to press forward in an attempt to extend their advantage with Trifiro and Barac both missing the target; Mark Rudan then looked to keep fresh legs in attack as he withdrew the latter for fleet-footed Japanese import Yuchi Yamauchi.
While United continued to threaten, the hosts refused to drop their heads and came close to pulling a goal back as Zac Freeburn drew a quality save from Reddy with a powerful shot from the edge of the box.
Reddy was called into action once again late on as he tipped Wilkinson’s 50-yard free-kick away for a corner; the save proved to be the last of the match as United saw out the remaining few minutes to secure all three points.
With news of other results already making its way around the ground – Rockdale and Marconi netted late winners over Sutherland and Bonnyrigg respectively – the visitors burst into wild celebrations upon the sounding of the full-time whistle as it brought with it confirmation of their status as Premiers and put them in pole position going into the finals.
Sydney United 58 FC coach Mark Rudan was delighted to see things work out in their favour, putting their fortune down to good old-fashioned preparation and focus going into this weekend’s crunch match:
“It worked out, and rightly so,” smiled Rudan.
“I suppose the football gods were shining down upon us.
“I’ve said throughout the week that we were prepared and focussed on doing the job and I told my players throughout the week that if we did win that in my mind we are the champions.
“What happened in round 1 we can forget about right now as it’s all worked out, then again that’s what happens, things go your way when you work extremely hard.
“I think, actually I don’t think – we did deserve to be Premiers.
“We are in my mind, over the course of the year, the best footballing side and the best side of this competition.
“There’s a lot of different parts to a season and the boys certainly played their role today and throughout the course of the season and I’m just really proud of them.”
With the Premiership now in their hands United receive a weekend off and Rudan has encouraged his side to savour the moment before they get back down to business in a fortnight’s time:
“I’m not going to think about it too much,” said Rudan.
“I know we’ve got a week off as I understand so I’ve told the players than in football and throughout your career you’re going to find there’s going to be a lot more bad than good times so I really want the players to enjoy the good times.
“You need to enjoy the wins, and when you win a Premiership like we have today I want them to just think about enjoying it.
“I think that’s important and it’ll freshen things up throughout the week but it’s really important to just take a step back and enjoy what you’ve achieved.
“Then it’s all systems go; we’ve got a long way to go yet, I’ll let them enjoy themselves and we want to go on and win the whole thing.”
While disappointed with the result, Blacktown Spartans coach Ben De Haan was happy with the effort of his side after matching United for much of the second-half:
“We gifted them the goals,” said De Haan.
“The first, just in the first or second minute of the game, and then the rest.
“We haven’t won much for weeks, I don’t know what to say anymore but that’s life.
“I’m just happy with the guys.
“We never copped a lot of goals all year, played a lot of good football.
“We camped them in their half in the second-half, what more could I ask of them?”
With their season now complete De Haan and co will look ahead to their 2014 campaign in which they will look for solutions in the final third to push for a top-five finish:
“We’ve struggled throughout the whole year in the front third,” said De Haan.
“Today again, they finished first but we camped them for a whole second-half.
“When we walk into the change room no one is really dejected because you look at it and see they won the league – if we had one striker up there that they have then we’d probably be sitting in the top five as well, having had as much of the ball in the way we played so that’s definitely a positive.
“We’ll recruit in the final third, that’s the go forward for next season.”
Match Stats
Blacktown Spartans 1 (Ibrahim Haydar (og) 19’)
Sydney United 58 FC 3 (Luka Glavas 1’, 39’ (pen), Mitchell Stamatellis 11’)
Sunday August 18th, 2013
Blacktown Football Park, Rooty Hill
Referee: Michael Weiner
Assistant Referees: Mitchell Clark and Tim Turner
Fourth Official: Brett Lorimer
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre; 3.Nathan Millgate, 5.Daniel Wilkinson, 6.Greg Kondek, 8.Brenton Rhodes, 11.Tyson Rhodes, 14.Trent Barton, 15.Conor Evans (22.Pasquale Polistina 67’), 25.Corey Biczo, 30.Kieran Dalton, 38.Zac Freeburn (9.Jun Kato 86’)
Substitutes Not Used: 19.Simon Zahra, 20.Luke Turnbull, 32.Luke Jenner
Yellow Cards: Kieran Dalton 53’
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney United 58 FC: 29.Liam Reddy; 3.Ben Jurman, 4.Nathan Sherlock, 6.Mitchell Stamatellis, 9.Robert Mileski, 11.Luka Glavas, 16.Stjepan Paric (7.Mirjan Pavlovic 84’), 18.Glen Trifiro, 20.Ibrahim Haydar, 22.Daniel Barac (8.Yuchi Yamauchi 65’), 23.Ante Tomic
Substitutes Not Used: 15.Anthony Tomelic, 19.Matthew Bilic, 41.Jordan Jennings
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
-By Michael Shoolman
