State League 2 Round 3 Finals Series Review

Fairfield City meet Stanmore Hawks in next Sunday’s State League 2 grand final at Arlington Oval following a definitive 4-1 Lions preliminary final triumph over Western Condors at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday afternoon.

Their younger counterparts won’t be joining them however as Stanmore shocked premiers Fairfield City Lions in a penalty shootout at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday (12pm kickoff), elevating Hawks to grand final tussle with Hurstville City Minotaurs.

Check the footballnsw.com.au website for full details.

Preliminary final

Fairfield City Lions 4 (Nas Basha, Nathan Attard, Julian Aguirre, Christian Ekwerike) Western Condors 1 (Roberto Sanchez)

Grade 20

Fairfield City Lions 1 (Mustafa Akca pen) Stanmore Hawks 1 (Peter Theodosi pen) – Hawks win penalty shootout 4-2

Lions claw Condors

Fairfield City Lions ran out comfortable 4-1 winners over Western Condors in Sunday afternoon’s preliminary final at Ernie Smith Reserve to slot in alongside premiers Stanmore Hawks at next week’s trophy decider.

The Lions started with vigour as Nas Basha finished off a nice passing sequence to make in 1-0 in the blink of an eye and a blistering Nathan Attard strike from outside the box doubled the advantage moments later.

Condors started to get back into the match and halved the deficit with a smashing far-post Roberto Sanchez volley to make it 2-1 at halftime, but their discipline wilted in the afternoon heat as Julian Aguirre slotted home a Lions penalty and Christian Ekwerike made it 4-1 while three Western players received their marching orders to end an excellent season on a sour note.

Fairfield coach Tony Basha said his players were word-sure of what they had to do. “If I told you what I said to them at training you’d be writing out the whole bloody dictionary,” he said.

“They were ready for today and we did to Condors what Stanmore did to us last week; it was 2-0 in 20 minutes and the boys went on with the job in the second half.

“We had Balla [key playmaker Conde] back today and made a huge difference, but he’ll probably have to miss the grand final because he has something on overseas, which is a huge blow for us.”

“But I wanted the players to show a bit of heart after last week’s shocking game against Stanmore and they did; they showed discipline and character, and that’s not easy to do when the side is constantly being changed.”

Western Condors coach Barry Zambrano wasn’t happy with how the day panned out but praised his players on a gallant 2013 season.

“It was a disappointing way to finish off the year, I think we got eight yellow cards and three send-offs, and some of the decisions made it very hard for us to press forward,” he said.

“We grew in confidence as the game went on … but there wasn’t any flow to the game and that worked against us – Fairfield got us on the back foot early and we had to chase them after that.”

“[Still] I’m very proud of the boys, they really put in a gladiator effort to get this far and we’re already looking forward to next year.”

Although Zambrano applauded Fairfield’s win he believed Stanmore would get the better of them next week: “I think Hawks will do the job in the final. They have the experience where it counts and it’s very hard to keep [golden boot] Neil Philippou out of a game for 90 minutes. I also think Stanmore already damaged the Lions psychologically with that 4-1 win last week.”

Grade 20

Stanmore Hawks delivered a final death knell to grade-20 premiers Fairfield City Lions following a resistant preliminary final penalty shootout win at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday.

The Hawks now face Hurstville City Minotaurs in next Sunday’s grand final at Arlington Oval (12pm), while the Lions reflect on how a side that went undefeated in 22 games of regular-time football won’t feature in the championship decider.

Fairfield started well and Mustafa Akca grabbed the lead from the penalty spot before having a player sent off late in the half to really halt their momentum.

Stanmore grabbed their opportunity with both hands as Peter Theodosi equalised through a penalty and they dug their heels in for a 1-1 result after extra-time.

But where the Lions were wayward the Hawks soared true to snare a 4-2 shootout victory and advance to next week’s grand final against Minotaurs.

Grand Final

It should be an absolute cracker of a day at Arlington Oval on Sunday, September 29, with a huge crowd expected to raise the atmosphere to fever pitch.

The home side has both its first grade and grade-20 outfits in the line-up with Stanmore Hawks versus Hurstville City Minotaurs kicking off the day’s action at 12pm (grade 20), followed by a blockbuster main game between Stanmore Hawks and Fairfield City Lions (2.30pm kickoff).

Come down and join in what promises to be a fantastic day of football. The weather forecast is sunny in the mid-20s, the food will be delicious, the fans are salivating and the players ready to put on a great show – good luck to all clubs!

-By Dan De Nardi