Mens State League Two Round 9 Review
Round nine produced some belters with all four games decided by the solitary goal.
Enfield Rovers beat University of NSW 4-3, Hurstville FC defeated Southern Bulls 1-0, Prospect United edged Western Condors 1-0, while Southern Branch caused a boilover with a 3-2 win against Hurstville City Minotaurs. Rydalmere Lions had the bye.
The ladder shows Hurstville FC (19) ahead of Prospect (16), Bulls (13), Lions (12), Minotaurs (12) and Condors (10), with just two catch-up games to complete the first round of matches (Condors play Bulls on Wednesday night, and are yet to reschedule their round-one postponement with Minotaurs).
In Grade-20, Uni beat Enfield 2-0, Condors pipped Prospect 1-0, Branch downed Minotaurs 2-0 and Bulls came from behind to beat Hurstville FC 3-2, leaving Lions (19), Prospect (19) and Uni (17) in front of Rovers (10), Bulls (10) and Branch (9).
Round 9
University of NSW 3 (Phil Phillips, Alex Austin, George Georgamlis) Enfield Rovers 4 (Michael Zezovski, Julian Borgiani, Indy Khabra, Richard Atkins)
Hurstville FC 1 (Stuart Meney) Southern Bulls 0
Western Condors 0 Prospect United 1 (Ben Lam)
Southern Branch 3 (Jordan Haddow, Joel Wilson, Rodney Kiss) Hurstville City Minotaurs 2 (Paul Paras, Ruben Viglino)
Grade 20
University of NSW 2 Enfield Rovers 0
Hurstville FC 2 Southern Bulls 3
Western Condors 1 Prospect United 0
Southern Branch 2 Hurstville City Minotaurs 0
Rovers take over Uni
Enfield Rovers overtook University of NSW on the ladder with a nervy 4-3 win at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon.
After Uni keeper Michael Schamps made a blistering save early on in the game many thought goals might be hard to come by today, but a minute later the custodian made a real meal of a Michael Zezovski strike, the ball slipping through his hands and legs to hand Rovers the lead.
Julian Borgiani found himself open at the back post moments later to double Enfield’s advantage and a late Indy Khabra rocket made it a cosy 3-0 at the break.
A different Uni side took the field in the second term, Phil Phillips running onto a pass through the middle to whack in the home side’s first response and George Georgamlis delivering a copycat goal a few minutes later to pull Uni back another one.
A scramble from a cross allowed Alex Austin to toe in an equaliser with 15 minutes to go and Uni looked like pulling off a remarkable comeback, but Rovers still had some mongrel left in them and against the run of play Richard Atkins slammed one into the bottom corner to return Enfield to a defining 4-3 edge.
It was a first-ever Rovers win against Uni and their third unbeaten game after a slow start of five straight losses, Enfield pinching Uni’s ladder position in the process.
A sick Uni coach Tom Belcher had no voice but managed to croak out a few short lines. “I already had a cold but I was speechless at halftime; it was a shocking first half,” he said.
“[They were] given a big pep talk and they came out in second half and just fired. We didn’t change anything tactically, so there’s a lot of positives to work with – we tried new shapes, tried a few people in different positions… we knew it’d take at least the first half of the year to settle; I think it will be good having the bye next week to clear our heads and come ready for round two.
Hurstville slip past Bulls
Hurstville FC stamped its name on first place as the teams turn for home following a gritty 1-0 defeat of 10-man Southern Bulls at St George Soccer Stadium on Saturday evening.
In a red-hot affair the match sparked dramatically when Jason Garrido was straight red-carded for a arguing with another player to leave Bulls a man down for the final 15 minutes, and sure enough FC made them pay when Michael Karagiannis switched to Henry Kamleitner on the left who isolated his defender and crossed into the box for a hustling Stuart Meney to tuck away while sitting on the floor.
Hurstville’s fourth cleansheet (and eighth win in 10 Bulls clashes) takes them to a league-high 19-point return for the first half of the season (eight games) to ensure they’ll be at the head of the field for the competition’s second half.
However, Hurstville also led last year’s league after eight games and missed the finals altogether so coach Steve Zoric will take them any way they come.
“I don’t want to go through that again,” he said. “It was a pretty open game, end-to-end stuff but cagey at the same time. I wanted the boys to tighten it up because I knew there would only be a goal in it.”
“They dominated early in the second half but we held strong and capitalised on their player being sent off. It was a really good game, a good tactical battle too, and it gives us a bit of breathing space again ahead of the bye, but if we want to win the championship we have to keep winning the big games.”
Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon had to pick his words carefully. “We went down but the teams didn’t really decide the result today; I’m a very disappointed coach,” he said.
“The team played really well, I can’t complain about the effort and opportunities we made; we hit the post 2-3 times and had some [genuine] penalty shouts turned down… lady luck wasn’t on our side in our finishing.”
“I still think we’re the team to beat; our two losses have both come from when we’ve had a player red-carded, but what can you do?”
Prospect pluck Condors
Prospect United held a stubborn Western Condors at bay 1-0 at Calabria Sports Ground on Sunday afternoon, the home side playing almost an hour with 10-men.
The evenly-matched contest took a twist when a Condors player was dismissed just after the half-hour for an on-field altercation but the uneven playing numbers had little effect as a motivated Western gave as good as they got from a patient Prospect unit.
And the goal surely came when Ben Lam pounced on a headed corner to tuck away the game’s deciding goal. It was also Prospect’s third straight cleansheet.
United coach Tony Caruso was happy with the result in an uncertain climate. “It was certainly tight, the conditions being wet didn’t allow for a really open match,” he said.
“We had a few chances and their keeper did extremely well, and we had a few scary moments in the second half – even with 10 men they lifted and still caused us problems. We’ll just keep focusing on our business and see what happens.”
Branch sweep Minotaurs
Not only the weather caused a giant rainbow to stretch across the south coast on Sunday afternoon, Southern Branch finally tasting victory with a colourful 3-2 win against previously unbeaten Hurstville City Minotaurs at South Nowra Sports Complex.
Branch looked determined from the outset and hit the front when Jordan Haddow let rip from 30 yards out, and Joel Wilson was in some sort of spicy mood, finishing off a crisp offensive with his second curving past the Minotaurs keeper for a 2-0 advantage inside the opening half-hour.
Hurstville hit back before halftime through captain courageous Paul Paras but the Southerners weren’t ready to let go, Wilson winding through four players and slipping a neat inside ball for Rodney Kiss to finish off and restore Branch’s two-goal buffer midway through the term.
Nervous moments followed when a Branch defender was penalised for jumping on Paras’ shoulders to try and clear a cross, and City got a reprieve when Ruben Viglino was allowed to retake his initially saved spot-kick after Southern keeper Joel Lockard was adjudged to have crossed his line – but the fulltime whistle finally blew with Branch 3-2 in front.
Southern coach Brod Crighton was certainly animated. “I’ve been smiling like the Cheshire cat! We were sick of losing and got what we deserved today; they only had two shots in the first half and we created plenty of opportunities for ourselves,” he said.
“I really relied on the strength of the players and refigured the 3-2-2 formation just a little bit; I fielded a short team but they were very intense, and we’ve talked about keeping our intensity high. Joel Wilson caused them all sorts of trouble, but it’s also the first time we’ve had fresh subs all season.
“There was only ever one way for us to go and that was up! It was a good, clean game played hard; everyone was good sports about it after the game, and our 20’s got up 2-0, so it was a great day for the club. I’ve been smiling all afternoon!”
Sarikakis doesn’t like playing teams with nothing to lose. “You know I’m bleeding. We should always be afraid of these teams; they were playing like it was a grand final, like their lives depended on it and good luck them, they’ve got a young team, very quick and can play very good football – they’ll win some games,” he said.
“We simply didn’t do enough with our chances; Paul Paras was excellent and we didn’t play badly… it wasn’t anything else other than a very good game from Branch.”
Next week’s games
Football NSW Men’s State League 2 round 10 features Enfield Rovers against Prospect United at Garside Park on Saturday afternoon (3pm), and Hurstville FC versus Rydalmere Lions at St George Soccer Stadium on Saturday evening (5pm). On Sunday afternoon (3pm) Western Condors host Hurstville City Minotaurs at Calabria Sports Ground, while Southern Branch face Southern Bulls at South Nowra Football Complex. University of NSW have the bye. Condors also play Bulls in a round-two catch-up game at Ernie Smith Reserve on Wednesday night.
-By Dan De Nardi
