Spartans dine on Suns
The Blacktown Spartans FC have defeated the Rockdale City Suns 5-1 in a dominant display at Blacktown Football Park to keep their 100% record intact as joint league leaders with rivals Blacktown City in the IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 competition.
It wasn’t all Blacktown Spartans’ way in the early stages as Rockdale opened up the match with fierce intensity which Blacktown struggled to match, which this led to scoring opportunities for the Suns in the early moments.
One of these resulted in the opening goal, but from there Blacktown Spartans hit their stride.
A strong run down the left flank by Tadgh Purcell led to a cracking cross to the far post which Nikola Taneski capitalised on to slot into the back of the net and open the scoring for Rockdale after 8′ minutes.
Blacktown responded strongly though and after a couple of close scoring opportunities, David Gullo found space down the left edge and crossed straight to Greg Kondek who calmly tapped it in to level the scores after 28 minutes.
Primed with confidence after recently scoring, Kondek yet again was able to weave some magic and found himself int space courtesy of some sloppy Rockdale defending. He was able to beat Suns goalkeeper Tomislav Arcaba with his shot to quickly turn the momentum of this match and put Blacktown ahead with a quarter of an hour remaining in the opening half.
Taneski tried his luck just a minute out from half time with a cracking strike from 30 yards out but was smoothly saved by Spartans goalkeeper Carlos Saliadarre.
The Rockdale camp went into the halftime break fuming after referee Michael Weiner waved away a close call for a penalty after a dubious challenge in the box by Luca Dukic on Taneski.
Spartans came out all guns blazing in the opening minutes of the second stanza, with the home side running freely through the Rockdale defence.
The best opportunity came through the form of a cross from Corey Biczo, but it just missed the outstretched boot of David Gullo with an open goal mouth waiting and the sustained pressure from went unrewarded.
It wasn’t long though until the Spartans gave themselves some breathing space, scoring there third goal through the form of Gullo who scored to make it 3-1.
75′ minutes in, referee Michael Weiner dismissed Rockdale City Suns substitute Hristijan Tanoski after a clumsy late challenge on Spartans tough defender Brett Studman.
With only 10 players on the pitch, Rockdale were instantly under pressure from the Spartans attack and substitute Kingsley Williams was able to put the result out of reach and score a fourth goal for the Spartans when he found the back of the net, after the Suns were unable to clear the ball effectively. He had only moments been on the field.
Soon after Gullo then played the ball into an open goal after Jacob Ott found space up the right edge and beautifully crossed back to Gullo, who scored his second to make the score 5-1.
This score albeit minus the attacking services of elusive striker Elsid Barkhousir made this victory as special one to savour considering Ben De Haan’s men defeated the Sutherland Sharks 6-1 in their opening clash of the season at Blacktown Football Park.
The Spartans showed class and maturity in their ability to overcome a spirited start by Rockdale, manipulating the Rockdale defence to come away with five goals and completely dominate the fixture.
Blacktown coach Ben De Han was happy with the result but admits there are still things to work on for his team.
"It was a good result, but a the same time i don’t think we played that well.
“There were some good signs though and there will be positives things to come.
"We have got to push on, next week is a new game, it means nothing if you don’t back it up the next week".
Meanwhile Rockdale coach Branko Cullina was not so happy with his teams performance but admits things didn’t go the way of his team tonight.
"We don’t want to continue to play like this, it was unfortunate we will 1- nil up, things could have been different at half time had we got that penalty, but certainly when the send off occurred we were always up against it.
"The better team won and they deserve their victory."
Match Stats
Blacktown Spartans 5 (Greg Kondek 28′, 30, David Gullo 75′, 90′, Kingsley Williams 80′)
Rockdale City Suns 1 (Nick Taneski 8′)
Saturday 29th March, 2014
Blacktown Football Park, Rooty Hill
Referee: Michael Weiner
Assistant Referees: James Tesoriero and Lance Greenshields
Fourth Official: Karl Davies
Blacktown Spartans: 1.Carlos Saliadarre ©, 2.Luke Austin (14.Jacob Ott 81’), 13.Corey Biczo (17.Kieran Dalton 68’), 5.Luka Dukic, 10.Emmanuel Giannaros, 11.David Gullo, 6.Greg Kondek, 7.Phillip Makrys (15.Kingsley Williams 75’), 8.Raymond Miller, 3.Nathan Millgate, 4.Brett Studman
Subs Not Used: 19.Reid Taylor, 21.Riley Keayes
Rockdale City Suns: 1.Tomislav Arcaba, 16.Daniel Barac (21.Patrick Savor 54’), 13.Ben Cornish (17.Hristijan Tanoski 65’), 12.Idriss El Hafiane, 3.Steven Hesketh, 8.Paul Kohler, 6. Takuya Murayama, 23.Askin Oygur ©, 9.Tadhg Purcell, 5.Paul Reid (4.Sean Symons 65’), 11.Nikola Taneski,
Subs Not Used: 22.David Bradasevic
Yellow Cards: 11.David Gullo, 8.Paul Kohler, 21.Patrick Savor
Red Cards: 17.Hristijan Tanoski (RCS) 75’
Player Ratings:
3 – David Gullo (BS)
2 – Greg Kondek (BS)
1 – Corey Biczo (BS)
– By Jack Hislop
