State League 2 – Round 20 Review
Some stirring round-20 results has State League 2 primed for an enthralling end to the season.
Stanmore Hawks beat Western Condors 1-0, Fairfield City Lions defeated Southern Bulls 2-1, Hurstville FC pipped Southern Branch 2-1, Belmore United downed University of NSW 2-0, and Enfield Rovers demolished Schofields Scorpions 6-0 to make the competition table very interesting viewing.
Stanmore (36) lead Fairfield (33) by three points at the top, but Bulls (29), Condors (28) and Uni (28) are all under siege from Branch (25), Belmore (23), Hurstville (23) and, mathematically, Minotaurs (21) with just two weeks of competition to play. A string of catch-up games will add further spices to an already steamy broth.
Southern Branch have the bye next weekend but play a round nine catch-up against Hurstville FC at Ison Park on Saturday, August 24 (3pm) followed by a round 13 run with Belmore on Sunday, August 25 (3pm). Lions also meet Belmore in a round three make-up at Garside Park on Tuesday, August 20 (8.15pm), Uni have a round-15 catch-up against Southern Bulls at Ernie Smith Reserve on Wednesday, August 21 (7.45pm), while Hawks play Minotaurs in a round-12 clash at Seymour Shaw Park on Thursday, August 29 (8pm). This will leave just three fixtures outstanding: round-13 Stanmore vs Enfield, round-12 Uni vs Enfield, round-12 Belmore vs Hurstville FC.
Round 20
University of NSW 0 Belmore United 2 (Chris Kartambis, Pablo Cardozo)
Southern Bulls 1 (Zach Chapman) Fairfield City Lions (Nathan Attard, Emile Damey)
Southern Branch 1 (Rhyley Foenander) Hurstville FC 2 (Carlos Carniero, Dario Borovickic)
Enfield Rovers 6 (Steve Urosevski, Adel Ahmed, Michael Rutherford, Grant Odei, Jordan Hassiem, Jeff Forrest) Schofields Scorpions 0
Stanmore Hawks 1 (Neil Philippou) Western Condors 0
Grade 20
University of NSW 1 (G. Oliveira 1) Belmore United 0
Southern Bulls 0 Fairfield City Lions 9
Enfield Rovers 10 Schofields Scorpions 1
Stanmore Hawks 4 (M. Baer, A. Papadopoulos, C. Haddad, A. Harvey) Western Condors 0
Rd 9: Fairfield City Lions 6 Southern Bulls 1
Rd 12: Belmore United 2 Hurstville FC 1
Rd 8: University of NSW 0 Western Condors 1
Belmore beat Uni
Belmore United kept its finals hopes alive with a gritty 2-0 win over University of NSW at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon.
Goals in each half to Chris Kartambis and Pablo Cardozo now puts Belmore two points behind fifth-placed Uni and Condors inside the final fortnight of competition.
Belmore United coach Nick Kambounias has taken over the reins of a very busy George Lazarou and is delighted with the side’s late progress. “It’s a very good team with a lot of experienced players and I’ve really tried to take the pressure off them,” he said. “Everyone is working for each other now and the spirit in the team is fantastic. The goals will come, but it’s more important that we’re playing well.”
“We really just want to finish the season strongly, but we all feel we can get there [the finals]. We still have to play the last 19 minutes of our game against Hurstville FC and hope to get the three points [Belmore was leading 2-1 when the lights went out], which will make things a lot more interesting in the final rounds.”
Lions edge Bulls
Two goals in the last five minutes lifted Fairfield City Lions to a thrilling 2-1 win over Southern Bulls in a Saturday night blockbuster at Ernie Smith Reserve.
A clever chip from Zach Chapman pushed the Bulls in front midway through the first half of a free-flowing contest and the home side looked likely to win until Fairfield’s substitutes turned the game on its head.
Lions coach Tony Basha rolled the dice when he brought on three of his young guns but they certainly did the job, Nathan Attard finishing off a great move down the right to equalise in the 86th minute and Emile Damey securing victory with a terrific goal 30 seconds from fulltime.
It was Fairfield’s sixth straight success over Bulls and Basha was delighted. “That was one of the best wins I’ve ever been involved in. I feel for the Bulls because they were very good, but the boys really wanted it and they’re over the moon with the way they won it,” he said.
“I had to make a few tactical changes in the second half just to try and get back into the game, and it paid off big time. The boys showed a lot of character and it was the type of win we needed – a good morale-booster. We want to catch Stanmore so we just have to keep winning and hope they slip-up somewhere.”
Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon applauded his team’s efforts. “I thought we controlled the game and isolated their key players, and probably should’ve been a few more up when they scored their goals,” he said. “We were only let down by a few fundamental mistakes at the end… but there’s still plenty of positives to take from the game, particularly against a good side like Fairfield.”
Hurstville down Branch
Hurstville FC made Southern Branch pay for their lack of finishing with a finely crafted 2-1 victory at Ison Park on Sunday afternoon pushing them back into playoff contention.
A lack-lustre first half paved way for an exciting second period, Hurstville hitting the lead when Carlos Carniero latched onto a great freekick at the far post and Dario Borovickic thundering in from the top of the box to double the advantage moments later.
A straight red card to FC’s James Galic put the wind in Branch’s sails and they halved the deficit with a terrific goal to 15-year-old Rhyley Foenander with 12 minutes to go, but the fulltime whistle blew before they could get a second and Branch will probably have to beat Hurstville in their round nine catch-up next Saturday to entertain a finals berth.
Hurstville coach Steve Zoric was pleased to finally return to winning ways. “Finally,” he said, “I’m happy to get the win but there’s still plenty of work to do. It’s do or die for us in every match, but we just have to focus on winning our games and we’ll see what happens.”
Branch coach Brod Crighton rued a string of wasted chances. “We created a lot of opportunities but weren’t clinical enough in front of goals,” he said. “Their keeper pulled off a couple outstanding saves, and it was good to see us get into so many goalscoring opportunities, but I’m disappointed with the finishing. I’ve seen this team beat Stanmore and Fairfield; we need to play like that against every team.”
Hawks peck Condors
Stanmore Hawks took their break against a very good Western Condors side in a tight 1-0 win at Arlington Oval on Sunday afternoon.
Condors missed plenty of opportunities and the Hawks made them pay, that man Neil Philippou proving the difference with a beautifully taken goal 15 minutes before halftime.
Stanmore now head Fairfield by three points, but fifth-placed Condors are exposed to four teams that can still make the top-five.
Hawks coach George Paradisis had mixed feelings about the result. “It was a big win today but I’m not that happy with the way we played; I thought Condors were very good,” he said. “It was always going to be tough after last week’s effort [beating Lions 2-0], but staying on top of a state league competition is very hard. Every game is a war out there because everyone wants to beat us, so we have to dig in harder.”
“No game is easy, especially with teams still trying to make the semis, but it’s been a very interesting season and anything can happen in the run home.”
Western coach Barry Zambrano also flipped a two-sided coin in his response. “It was a really good game and we had several clear-cut opportunities, so I’m very disappointed to lose but pleased to be very competitive against the team coming first in the competition,” he said. “I, thought we should’ve got something from the game, and now it’s finals football for us from here on just to get into the finals.”
Rovers maul Scorpions
Enfield Rovers scuttled Schofields Scorpions 6-0 at Pratten Park on Sunday afternoon to continue the club’s excellent end of season run.
Steve Urosevski and Adel Ahmed goals set up a 2-0 halftime lead and Enfield turned it on in the second, Grant Odei, Jordon Hassiem, Jeff Forrest and even goalkeeper Michael Rutherford chipping in with a dazzling diving header from the edge of the box to round out the resounding victory.
Enfield coach Andrew Montgomery dipped his hat to his side and gave Rutherford a tick of approval. “Looks like I’ve found a new star striker for next year,” he laughed. “We had a good chat during the week and the club is committed to helping the under-20s as they push toward a finals spot, but we also have players fighting for their spots next year so it’s good to see everyone putting in the effort even though first grade can’t make the finals.”
“We have a big game against Stanmore on Wednesday night but we’re really forward to the match against The General [Minotaurs coach] next weekend as we want to finish as high up the ladder as we can.”
Next week’s games
State League 2 round 21 starts with a Saturday afternoon encounter featuring Belmore United and Stanmore Hawks at Blick Oval (3pm kickoff), followed by Sunday afternoon games (3pm) between Western Condors and Southern Bulls at Calabria Sports Ground, Hurstville City Minotaurs and Enfield Rovers at Punchbowl Oval, Fairfield City Lions and Hurstville FC at Rydalmere Park, and Schofields Scorpions versus University of NSW at the CSI Ground.
