Stallions shock Eagles to claim finals spot
The Marconi Stallions sneaked into the IGA National Premier Leagues NSW Mens 1 finals series with a 1-0 victory over the Bonnyrigg White Eagles at Bonnyrigg Sports Club on Sunday.
An injury time goal to Shane Webb saw the Stallions claim all three points in a tough match.
Marconi Stallions goalkeeper James Chronopoulos captained his side in the place of Nahuel Arrarte who suffered a knee injury last week forcing him to bring his illustrious career to a premature end.
Bonnyrigg started the brighter of the two sides pushing forward in the opening minutes of the match with Tynan Diaz striking a free-kick just past the right hand upright.
The White Eagles early pressure almost saw them open the scoring in the 6’ minute when Alex Canak rose well to head the ball wide from a Chris Tadrosse free-kick.
Marconi went straight down the opposite side of the pitch and almost scored themselves with Matthew Nash producing a great save before two follow up blocks by his defenders to keep the scores level.
Tadrosse was a persistent threat down the left hand touchline and in the 19’ minute his cross was just headed away by Mitchell Thompson header with Mitchell Long waiting at the near post ready to pounce.
Bo Hyun Chun was unlucky to not have given the White Eagles the lead in the 25’ minute with his well struck shot from 20-yards out well saved by a diving James Chronopoulos.
The Stallions were again lucky not to be behind form the ensuing corner with a header cleared off the line from Mitchell Thompson with the referee also waving away claims of a hand ball in the box.
The up and down action continued in the 33’ minute when Ali Haydar pushed forward to win the ball off Chun before finding Tadgh Purcell free on the left with the striker’s shot blocked before being cleared.
Mitchell Long almost gave his side the lead 5’ minutes later with a rocketing shot from out wide on the right cannoning off the crossbar.
Marconi had a great chance to take a lead into the break at the stroke of half-time with Sean O’Connell’s shot well saved by Nash.
The home side came out of the break eager to break the deadlock early, passing the ball around swiftly with plenty of movement around the park.
On 49’ minutes, Bonnyrigg switched the play well before Tynan Diaz sent a perfect cross to
Robbie Younis with the striker unable to direct his header goal wards.
3’ minutes later, Howard Fondyke popped up free on the back post to meet a corner, heading the ball towards the goal before a flying Chronopoulos tapped the ball away to keep the scores level.
The Stallions created a half-chance of their own in the 60’ minute after Ali Haydar took a quick free-kick finding O’Connell out wide whose cross was met by Purcell with Nikola Zonjic providing enough pressure to thwart the opportunity.
Elsid Barkhousir had a fantastic chance in the 65’ minute when Purcell held up two defenders before turning them both to find his fellow striker in the box whose shot was blocked by Tadrosse with a last ditch effort.
Bonnyrigg counterattacked in 70’ minute through Long with the midfielder finding Tadrosse on the left who stepped back inside onto his right before his shot was blocked by a sliding Damien Travis.
Chronopoulos saved his side again on 74’ minutes, tapping a powerful Zonjic header over the bar.
With 5’ minutes remaining both sides went for the jugular pushing forward with numbers with Adrian Ucchino first to see his snap shot go wide.
Substitute Aaron Peterson troubled the Marconi defence in the 1’ minute of injury-time, beating Damien Travis before his shot-turn-cross missed all of his teammates.
It was the Stallions, however, that would reign supreme with Shane Webb pulling down a cross before hitting the top left-hand corner of the net giving his side the 1-0 win.
Following the match, Stallions head coach Jean Paul De Marigny said he was looking forward to the finals:
“We’re prepared for semi-final football, we always believed in it and it was dramatic the way we won and we are looking forward to the next game now,’’ De Marigny said.
“The boys have got momentum. We showed today they we will never give up and I know they will never give up in the finals either.’’
De Marigny also paid tribute to Nahuel Arrarte, admitting his team played with their injured captain in their minds:
“It’s been a tough week for Naz and it was an emotional week,’’ he said.
“I think Naz was in every person out there including players and staff.
“He’s known Webby since he was 10 years old so for him to score the winner, it is a really special story for us.”
Bonnyrigg White Eagles head coach Brian Brown said his side lacked the final touch needed to score:
“I thought the first-half we started a bit slow compared to how we’ve been playing.
“I couldn’t fault the effort, desire, passion of the guys.
“It was just that final ball. A few times we were shooting when we should have passed and just that final touch hurt us a little bit.
“Jimmy (Chronopoulos) was the best player on the park for them today with three fantastic saves as well.’’
Match Stats
Bonnyrigg White Eagles 0
Marconi Stallions 1 (Shane Webb 92’)
Sunday 18th of August, 2013
Bonnyrigg Sports Club, Bonnyrigg
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1.Matthew Nash; 8.Alex Canak (19.Aaron Peterson 66’), 21.Bo Hyun Chun, 7.Tynan Diaz, 16.Howard Fondyke, 10.Mitch Long, 5.Chris Tadrosse (C), 4.Vuko Tomasevic, 18.Adrian Ucchino, 9.Robbie Younis (2.Alex Mansueto 81’), 6.Nikola Zonjic
Substitutes Not Used: 14.Jordan Crighton, 25.Liam Gobbo, 15.Steven Hesketh
Yellow Cards: Robbie Younis 62’, Bo Hyun Chun 78’
Red Cards: Nil
Marconi Stallions: 22.James Chronopoulos (C); 2.Mitchell Thompson, 3.Ali Haydar, 4.Umut Tokdogan, 7.Sean O’Connell, 10.Milorad Simonovic , 17.Tadgh Purcell, 6.Shane Webb, 45.Elsid Barkhousir (12.Anthony Proia 72’), 25.Kojiro Hori (8.Jarred Lum 54’), 19.Damien Travis
Substitutes Not Used: 21.Stefan Giglio, 42.Daniel Collins, 8.Jared Lum, 23.Christopher Nunes
Yellow Cards: Ali Haydar 83’
Red Cards: Nil
-By Chris Georges
