State League Two Round 15 Review

Mens State League Two round 15 was once again turned on its head when Hurstville City Minotaurs stunned Rydalmere Lions 1-0, Southern Bulls beat University of NSW 5-1, Hurstville FC edged Enfield Rovers 4-2, and Western Condors downed Southern Branch 1-0. Prospect United had the bye.

The results puts Hurstville FC (29 points) on top of the pile with three rounds to play, slightly ahead of Bulls (26) and Prospect (26), with fourth-placed Lions (24) left to hold a charging Minotaurs (22) and Condors (17) at bay.

Interestingly there seems to be little advantage in playing at home this season. The home side’s won just 20 of 58 fixtures (nine draws). In fact only two clubs have earned more points on home turf than away, Prospect and Branch… Enfield haven’t won at home at all. While Bulls are yet to lose at Ernie Smith Reserve (two wins, four draws), Prospect’s made the most of William Lawson Reserve taking 15 points from six matches.

Rydalmere have a commanding advantage in grade-20 with Lions (34) seven points in front of Bulls (27) with a catch-up game still up its sleeve. Uni (26) and Prospect (24) look likely to round out the top-four as Branch (16), Condors (15) and Rovers (14) trail off.

Round 15

University of NSW 1 (Ilidio Carreira) Southern Bulls 5 (Nick Dionisiou 2, Jason Garrido 2, Ninos Filips)

Hurstville FC 4 (Denis Cutura 3, Daniel Bittar) Enfield Rovers 2 (Ayman Hill, Tim Porter)

Rydalmere Lions 0 Hurstville City Minotaurs 1 (Sean Richardson)

Southern Branch 0 Western Condors 1 (Mauricio Sanchez)

Grade 20

University of NSW 1 Southern Bulls 2

Hurstville FC 0 Enfield Rovers 3

Rydalmere Lions 2 Hurstville City Minotaurs 1

Southern Branch 1 Western Condors 0

Bulls trample Uni

Southern Bulls let loose in a 5-1 romp against University of NSW at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon.

Bulls led 3-0 at the break before Uni’s Ilidio Carreira scored off a second-half corner to make it a little interesting, but the visitors added a couple of other goals – Nick Dionisiou and Jason Garrido finishing up with two each and Ninos Filips one – to round out a solid 5-1 win, their first in a month.

Bulls coach Ramsin Shamon was full of praise for his troops. “It was a bit like a walk in the park but it gave us an opportunity to try a couple of things. Uni looked like they were a little underdone in both grades to be honest,” he said.

Southern’s grade-20 side beat Uni 2-1, their seventh win in eight games to jump Uni and go second on the ladder behind Rydalmere.

Hurstville over Enfield

Hurstville FC were made to work for a gritty 4-2 win against Enfield Rovers at St George Soccer Stadium on Saturday evening.

Indy Khabra headed in a Tim Porter freekick at the far post to surge Enfield ahead in just the second minute but their joy was shortlived as Denis Cutura was brought down inside the penalty area at the other end and converted the spot-kick to level the scores moments later.

Rovers led a second time when Porter nailed a 10th-minute effort from outside the box but FC equalised through Daniel Bittar to make it 2-2 at the break in a riveting game.

Both sides had chances in the second period and the breakthrough finally came with Cutura punching in Hurstville’s third and they sealed victory late in the game when Rovers keeper Michael Rutherford was sent off for a challenge on Henry Kamleitner, who was helped off the park as Cutura drilled home the penalty to grab a neat hat-trick and move into double figures for the season.

FC coach Steve Zoric thought Enfield put up a good showing but felt his side deserved their win. “They started out strong in both halves we eventually got control of the match,” he said.

“The character inside the team is unbelievable; we’ve had nine changes over the last two weeks and keep getting results. We’re in the driving seat [outright first] with most of the boys coming back over the next couple of weeks. What will be, will be, but we’ve got it there in front of us to take it.”

Rovers coach Andrew Montgomery felt his side should’ve got more from the match. “There were some interesting [decisions] made out on the field… but both sides should take credit for a good game,” he said.

“We just have to keep playing the way we’ve been playing; we’re not getting the rewards for how we’ve played, but they’ll come.”

Enfield beat Hurstville 3-0 in grade-20.

Minotaurs snare Lions

Hurstville City Minotaurs opened up the top-four chase with a stunning 1-0 win over Rydalmere Lions at Rydalmere Park on Sunday afternoon.

Following an intriguing scoreless first half it didn’t take long for the game to be busted wide open after oranges, Minotaurs kicking off and passing to the flanks when a Sam Mehana cross came in that was finished off by Sean Richardson – it ended up being the deciding goal.

Hurstville’s third straight victory over Rydalmere also snapped a seven-game Lions winning streak with fifth-placed City now just two points behind them.

Minotaurs coach Peter Sarikakis shook his head reminiscing about some lost points during the season but whet his lips in anticipation of what his team is capable of.

“I’m quite happy; I wish we had the win last week [against Bulls], but I know that once we get into the semis we can beat any team,” he said.

“Rydalmere is a good side but we’ve beaten them twice and it’s the points we lost to Condors and Branch that’s put us where we are, so now we have to do the job from the finals.”

“We’re playing some good soccer; if we play to our strengths we should be getting the three points each time. I have no excuses; it’s down to the boys now.”

Lions coach Tony Basha had no disagreements with what took place. “They scored from the kick-off, parked the bus and we couldn’t score. Oh my god we had so much possession in their half and pushed wave after wave at them… it was a double-decker bus!” he laughed.

“It’s not a hiccup; that’s football, that’s why we love the game, and I still think we’ll finish on top.”

Rydalmere’s grade-20 side won 2-1 to establish a seven point lead over Bulls at the top of the table, and they have a game in hand on their closest rival with just three weekends to go.

Condors snap Branch

Western Condors did well to hold Southern Branch at bay in a 1-0 win at South Nowra Football Complex on Sunday afternoon.

A much-improved Branch defensive line contained Condors for most of the game, their only major blemish coming 15 seconds after the restart when Mauricio Sanchez was left alone at the back post to slot in the game’s winning goal for Western.

Condors have a good road record having only dropped one result in seven outings to still remain in the playoff hunt, but they’ll need to be crafty seven points off the pace and three rounds left to play. 

Branch coach Brod Crighton gave credit to his team’s defensive development and pointed to the other end as to where the result eluded them. “We were our own worse enemy. In the first half we gave the ball away so many times and still they didn’t score; we held their defensive structure pretty good,” he said.

“[After Condors scored] We pushed forward and created opportunities, but we weren’t good enough to score. It’s disappointing we didn’t get a point out of today but we didn’t lose because we conceded, it was because we didn’t score.”

Southern beat Western 1-0 in grade-20 to leave both side’s finals chances on mathematical thin ice – Branch are eight points and Condors nine behind fourth-placed Prospect with just three rounds remaining, but United has to tackle both chasers in the last two weeks of the regular season.

Next week’s games

Mens State League Two round 16 pits Enfield Rovers against Southern Branch at Garside Park on Saturday afternoon (3pm) followed by Prospect United versus Hurstville FC on Saturday evening (5pm) and Southern Bulls welcome Rydalmere Lions to Ernie Smith Reserve on Saturday night (7pm). Western Condors host University of NSW at Calabria Sports Ground on Sunday afternoon (3pm). Hurstville City Minotaurs have the bye 

-By Dan De Nardi