Blacktown City continue impressive start

WIN Jubilee Oval in Kogarah was a stunning venue for the National Premier Leagues IGA Men’s 1 Round 2 clash between St George FC and Blacktown City FC where the visitors took home full points thanks to a goal in either half.

The game itself wasn’t really the most spectacular as both sides certainly suffered in the heat during the first half.

They were cautious and generally content to grind out a result.

The first real shot in anger arrived in the 19′ minute when David Talevski broke free from the defenders and shot just over the crossbar for the home side.

In the 23′ minute Aleks Jovovic made a beautiful run into the box from the left hand side but somehow stalled his engine at the crucial moment and the wonderful chance went begging.

Blacktown City’s first real chance arrived when Yianni Fragogianni in the 28′ minute drove a hard and flat shot along the ground and just wide of the intended target.

In the 31′ minute Daniel Araujo cut back from the by-line to Kearyn Baccus who fired just over from close range and Blacktown City were now in the driver’s seat.

So it was no surprise that in the 33′ minute Blacktown City FC finally broke the deadlock when Danny Choi put the ball across goal and, in a bit of a scramble, it was left to Sasa Macura to slot home from close range.

In the 42′ minute a cross by Fragogianni from the right was punched away by goalkeeper Dion Shaw but only as far as Ryuji Miyazawa, who drove home with a powerful shot that was finally smothered by Shaw at his second attempt.

It was indeed courageous and competent goalkeeping by the young St George FC custodian.

For the start of the second stanza of play, the temperature dropped and the clouds rolled in making it a much more pleasant atmosphere for the players.

St George FC coach Manny Spanoudakis showed his hand early by substituting David Dascal for Lenox Tweneboa at the break to freshen things up at the back for the home side.

Blacktown City FC scored the only goal of the second half in the 54th minute when Choi broke free down the left hand side and slotted the ball across goal to the unmarked Daniel Araujo who had the easy task of putting it in the back of the net.

In the 57th minute Costa Andricopoulos received his second yellow card of the game and his side found himself a man down. His challenge was late and certainly deserved the booking and now St George FC were in real trouble – a two goal deficit and a player short.

In the final moments, Miyazawa should really have done a lot better after he worked himself into a nice position, but from the edge of the box he fired wide. It was to be the last chance of the game for either side.

Blacktown City FC coach Mark Crittenden was happy to come away from WIN Jubilee Oval with maximum points.

“I was very happy to get the result because we had two away games,” he said.

“They are two three-pointers and to be away from home and get the result makes me very happy.

“I don’t think it was as good a performance as last week because we were a bit slow in moving the ball, but when you get three points away, you’re very happy.”

Meanwhile, Crittenden’s beaten counterpart the affable and straight-shooting Manny Spanoudakis, who is in his second stint as coach of St George FC, said that he disappointed with his side.

“Today’s effort was extremely disappointing because it was lacking in every department,” he said.

“It’s not just one department; unfortunately it was one of those games where we’ll go away, look at the video on Tuesday and prepare for another hard game against Sutherland.

“We had no excuses today because they won’t help us but we’ll look for the answers and hopefully it’s a one-off day.

“Sutherland are a very good team who always play a nice brand of football so it will be a very difficult challenge back here next week.”

Match Stats

St George 0

Blacktown City 2 (Sasa Macura 33’, Daniel Araujo 54’)

Sunday, 23rd March, 2014

WIN Jubilee Oval, Kogarah

Referee: Kevin Peddie

Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields, Matthew McOrist

Fourth Official: Kearney Robinson

St George FC: 1. Dion Shaw, 2.Costa Andricopoulos, 3.David Dascal (13.Lenox Tweneboa 46’), 5.Bill Tsanidis, 8.Nick Napoli, 11.Juan Carlos Chavez, 12.Aleks Jovovic, 15.Djordje Degenek, 16.Jonathan Castano-Acero, 19.David Talevski(7.Chris Gomez 72’), 23.George Codrea (10.Bruno Pivato 63’)

Substitutes not used: 9.Jason Naidovski, 21.Lucas North

Yellow Cards: Dascal 45’, Castano-Acera 64’

Red Cards: Andricopoulos 52’

Blacktown City FC: 1.Nenad Vekic, 3.Giorgio Speranza, 4.Yianni Frogogianni,6.Matthew Lewis (18.Daniel Araujo 21’), 7.Travis Major (12.Joel Hardwick 69’), 8.Sasa Macura (5.Jacob Poscoliero 75’), 9.Ryuji Miyazawa, 10.Kearyn Baccus, 11.Danny Choi, 15.Marco Travaglani, 18.Daniel Araujo, 19.Zac Cairncross

Substitutes not used: 13.Blake Tuxford

Yellow Cards: Macura 28’

Red Cards: Nil

Player Ratings

3 – Danny Choi (BC)

2 – Yianni Fragogianni (BC)

1 – Marco Travaglani (BC)

– By Joe Russo