State League Two Round 1 Review
Football NSW State League 2 kicked off with a mixed bag of results.
Hurstville FC upset Rydalmere Lions 1-0, Prospect United held off Enfield Rovers 5-2, Southern Bulls eclipsed Southern Branch 5-0, while soft turf at St George Stadium saw the postponement of Saturday evening’s scheduled fixture between Hurstville City Minotaurs and Western Condors.
Round 1
Prospect United 5 (Chris Camilleri 2, Michael Wood 2, Ben Lam) Enfield Rovers 2 (Damian Jankovic 2)
Southern Bulls 5 (Leigh Gunn 3, Jason Garrido, Nathan Niski) Southern Branch 0
Rydalmere Lions 0 Hurstville FC 1 (Denis Cutura)
Hurstville City Minotaurs vs Western Condors postponed
Grade 20
Prospect United 2 Enfield Rovers 1
Southern Bulls 3 Southern Branch 2
Rydalmere Lions 3 Hurstville FC 1
Hurstville City Minotaurs vs Western Condors postponed
Bulls break Branch
Southern Bulls charged home to a comfortable 5-0 victory over Southern Branch at Ernie Smith Reserve on Saturday evening, the match all but over 4-0 up at halftime.
The Bulls’ third-straight victory over Branch was testament to four months of solid lead-up work as Leigh Gunn scored a hat-trick accompanied by Jason Garrido and Nathan Niski goals to get their 2014 season off to a flyer.
Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon was delighted with the result in the midst of a busy schedule that included Waratah Cup commitments.
“I’m always happy when we win but it was a real class act last night,” he said. “All the hard work came together with regard to the right kind of combinations, movement and intensity; it was just what I was asking for and the boys responded from the first whistle – the whole squad had a good game.”
“We do have a few things to work on, and with a Waratah Cup game [against Hurstville FC at Bringelly Park] on Wednesday night that makes it three games in a week, so you have to be careful what you wish for.”
Branch coach Brod Crighton dipped his lid to Bulls but was still drawing plenty of positives from the clash.
“They were better than us, faster, stronger, clever on the ball and their transition really killed us as they got in behind us way too easily; and some of their shots no-one could’ve stopped – it could have been 10-0 if it wasn’t for a few outstanding saves from Joel Lockard,” he said.
“We changed structure in the second half, pushed a back-man to the middle of park, and that worked better for us as we created a few more opportunities…. but we just didn’t have the right people in the right positions at the right time, although Robert Franks, Joel Wilson, Todd Wade and Johnny Walsh all ran their hearts out and never gave up, even at 5-0 down, and that’s a good sign.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We played out well from the back but had difficulty finding our footing in front third. We’ve got the players that can do the job, but we need to be in the game from the start.”
In the grade-20 match Bulls edged Branch 3-2 after the teams were locked at 0-0 at the interval.
Prospect hold off Enfield
A five-goal first-half blitz helped Prospect United to a 5-2 victory against Enfield Rovers at William Lawson Park on Saturday night.
Prospect were on fire and steamrolled Enfield to gain a commanding 5-0 halftime advantage – Michael Wood and Chris Camilleri bagging braces and Benny Lam the other goal – only to take their foot off the pedal in the second term as Damian Jankovic scored twice for the visitors to narrow the deficit to 5-2 by fulltime.
United coach Tony Caruso played ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ following a picture-perfect opening period and said he was pleased he had something to work on after a solid season start.
“Everything we did turned to gold! We scored within 10 minutes and had the fifth on the board by halftime – every player worked well together and did their role… in the first half,” he said.
“Enfield had some quality about them, they didn’t play badly in the first half, and they really showed some hunger and put us under pressure in the second and it paid off a couple of times.”
Rovers coach Andrew Montgomery applauded Prospect’s opening 45 minutes but took plenty from the game for his side too.
“Mate, no-one would’ve beaten them in that first half – they had five chances and took five goals, some of them spectacular, and they didn’t put a foot wrong,” he said. “We changed our formation a little in the second half and moved some players around and had more of the running, but we weren’t going to change the result.”
“There’s always positives to take out of the game. We did a couple of things poorly and it cost us goals, but I’m pretty happy with how we played for the majority of the match.”
In the grade-20 encounter Prospect came from a goal down at halftime to beat Enfield 2-1.
Hurstville cage Lions
Hardworking Hurstville FC caused a boil-over when they downed Rydalmere Lions in an absorbing contest at Rydalmere Park on a damp Sunday afternoon.
Rydalmere had plenty of the ball and botched several early chances, Hurstville keeper Matt Mulroney saving brilliantly in a one-on-one to eventually allow Hurstville to claw their way back into the game and a Denis Cutura strike on the hour lifted the visitors to a deserved victory, their first win over Lions in six meetings.
Hurstville coach Steve Zoric praised his troops for the way they ground out a gritty win, against the odds, away from home, on a soggy pitch.
“It was edge of your seat stuff! They’re a good football side and we knew it’d be tough, and to be fair they had a lot of possession,” he said. “We had to keep our shape defensively and the boys did that very well and kept them to mostly long-range shots.”
“We slowly got back into it and took some momentum into the second half and had the better of the chances after that; it was a very tough game.”
“Lions controlled the game really well at the start but I think the difference today was we kept our structure better and our transition back to defence was a bit better than them.”
Hurstville has done the competition an early favour by beating clear title favourites Rydalmere on their home turf but Zoric wasn’t buying into premature assertions.
“I think any team can be beaten on the day and I’ll be treating every opponent like that; we won’t get anywhere without consistency, no team can,” he said.
“Lions are a great football-playing side, beautiful to watch, and it will always take an almighty effort to beat them and today we showed we were good enough to do that.”
Rydalmere coach Tony Basha rued his side’s missed opportunities but handed it to his opponents for a determined victory.
“We had chances early but couldn’t score and Hurstville showed they were hungrier than us. They kept their discipline, played tough and deserved to win,” he said.
“I’ve got six park footballers still getting used to the pace of the game, and wet weather doesn’t suit us at all because we play a passing game. We tried hard but Hurstville played good football and were winning every second ball; they’ll be very tough to beat this year.”
It was a different story in grade-20 as Lions cruised to a cosy 3-1 win over FC.
Next week’s games
Round 2 of Football NSW State League 2 sees University of NSW host Prospect United at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon while on Sunday afternoon Western Condors welcome Southern Bulls to Calabria Sports Ground, Enfield Rovers meet Hurstville City Minotaurs at Garside Park, and Southern Branch tackle Rydalmere Lions at South Nowra Sports Complex. Hurstville FC have the bye.
Waratah Cup/FFA Cup
Several SL2 teams have a busy week with third-round Waratah Cup action pitting Rydalmere against Spirit FC (SUPA IGA NSW Mens 2) at Christie Park, Prospect meet Central Coast Mariners Academy (SUPA IGA NSW Mens 2) at Pluim Park, Condors play Waverley Old Boys (Eastern Suburbs Association) at Knight Park, while division two rivals Hurstville FC face Southern Bulls at Bringelly Park.
-By Dan De Nardi
