Mens State League Two Round 18 Review

A dramatic Mens State League Two final-round saw the top-four finish Hurstville FC, Southern Bulls, Prospect United and Rydalmere Lions.

Bulls beat Hurstville 2-1 with the last kick of the game to steal second place on the ladder behind premiers FC, a 1-1 draw between Prospect and Western Condors consigning United to third place ahead of Rydalmere (who had the weekend bye).

Southern Branch whipped Hurstville City Minotaurs 7-0 and Enfield Rovers downed University of NSW 4-0 to hand this year’s wooden spoon to Uni after Rovers ambushed Minotaurs 5-1 in a round-11 catch-up game at 5Sports Caringbah on Tuesday night, Lions crushed Uni 6-1 in a round-17 clash at David Phillips Field on Wednesday night to wrap up the club championship, and FC won the round-17 Hurstville derby 2-1 at William Lawson Park on Friday night.

The competition enters semifinals this weekend with all games on Sunday afternoon (4pm kickoff). Premiers Hurstville FC play Southern Bulls for a grand final berth and Prospect United meets Rydalmere Lions in the knockout semifinal. In grade 20 (1.30pm kickoffs), premiers Rydalmere face Prospect and Bulls play Uni.

The final table showed Hurstville FC (36) well in front of Bulls (30), Prospect (30) and Rydalmere (29), with Minotaurs (25), Condors (24), Rovers (12), Branch (10) and Uni (7) a little off the pace.

In grade-20 Lions (43) finished a mile in front of Prospect (31), Bulls (28) and Uni (28), with Rovers (24), Condors (18), Branch (16), Minotaurs (10), Hurstville FC (8) not good enough this time round.

Rydalmere (99) claimed the club championship ahead of Prospect (86), Bulls (87), Hurstville FC (80), Condors (64), Enfield (47), Minotaurs (45), Uni (41), and Branch (30).

Round 18

Enfield Rovers 4 (Tim Porter 2, Johan Andersson, Felipe Orjvela) University of NSW 0

Southern Bulls 2 (Rocco Romeo, John Fahmi) Hurstville FC 1 (Denis Cutura)

Prospect United 1 (Martin Narvaez) Western Condors 1 (Mauricio Sanchez)

Southern Branch 7 Hurstville City Minotaurs 0

Round 11 catch-up: Hurstville City Minotaurs 1 () Enfield Rovers 5 ()

Round 17 catch-up: University of NSW 1 (Cameron Sorge) Rydalmere Lions 6 (Amaury Gauthier 4, Yoel Silvestre, Julian Aguirre)

Round 17 catch-up: Hurstville FC 2 (Daniel Bittar, Denis Cutura) Hurstville City Minotaurs 1 ()

Grade 20

Enfield Rovers 0 University of NSW 0

Southern Bulls 1 Hurstville FC 1

Prospect United 4 Western Condors 0

Southern Branch 0 Hurstville City Minotaurs 0

Round 11 catch-up: Hurstville City Minotaurs 0 Enfield Rovers 1

Round 17 catch-up: University of NSW 1 Rydalmere Lions 1

Round 17 catch-up: Hurstville FC 7 Hurstville City Minotaurs 0

Bulls down Hurstville

It was pandemonium at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday afternoon after an injury-time goal lifted Southern Bulls to a 2-1 victory over leaders Hurstville FC and secured second place on the points table.

A dour scoreless first half exploded in the second when a Jason Garido freekick hit the crossbar and bounced perfectly for former Hurstville player Rocco Romeo to drill home his first goal for Bulls and with the clock ticking toward fulltime  it looked like Southern would finally break their Ernie Smith draw voodoo (five stalemates in seven contests there).

But in the last minute of regular time FC’s in-form star Danny Bittar beat two Bulls players to set up Denis Cutura for a beautiful counter-attack goal that leveled the scores.

And with the referee’s whistle in his mouth there’d be one more final twist when a sweeping Southern team movement culminated with Garido feeding John Fahmi, who rounded the Hurstville keeper and slotted home from a very acute angle to lift Bulls to an incredible 2-1 victory and jubilation at their last-gasp elevation into second place.

It was the fifth one-goal margin between the sides in their past six encounters – and they’ll line up against each other again this Sunday for a chance at making the August 24 grand final at Hawkesbury.

Southern coach Ramsin Shamon couldn’t believe fortune swung his way for once. “Both sides were pretty poor throughout the game, but it was definitely a crazy finish,” he said.

“The amount of draws we’ve had and not finishing people off, that happens. We got a bit of luck today, not that we didn’t deserve the win, but we’ve been sticking to a structure and we got our reward today.”

Hurstville coach Steve Zoric wasn’t really focused on the result. “The game had many twists and turns but our main target was always to not get any injuries and try to build up minutes in a few returning players,” he said. “The boys did start to tire toward the end but it was still good for our finals preparation to tell the truth.”

A 1-1 draw in grade-20 pushed Bulls into third place and an elimination meeting with Uni this weekend.

Prospect, Condors draw

Western Condors fought back for a 1-1 draw with finals-bound Prospect United at William Lawson Reserve on Sunday afternoon.

Prospect were gunning for second spot on the ladder and found a way through the Western defence five minutes before the interval when Martin Narvaez capitalised on a clever switch in play to beat one defender and fire past the Condors keeper form 20-yards out.

But the visitors refused to surrender and came back well to find a leveler from Mauricio Sanchez midway through the second term, the game finishing 1-1.

The result allowed Southern Bulls to leapfrog United, leaving Prospect to face Rydalmere Lions in this Sunday’s knockout semifinal.

United coach Tony Caruso wasn’t all that impressed with his side’s performance but applauded the goals. “It was a pretty slack game actually, a lot of stop-start football… but that’s how it goes in football sometimes. It was two good goals in a scrappy game” he said.

Prospect’s grade-20 side won 4-0 to secure second position behind Rydalmere, who they play this weekend for a grand final seat.

Branch cane Minotaurs

A road-weary Hurstville City Minotaurs endured a sour south coast trip with Southern Branch delivering a 7-0 shellacking at South Nowra Football Complex on Sunday afternoon.

There wasn’t much to play for after Minotaurs were bundled out of the finals race following midweek losses to both Enfield (1-5) and Hurstville FC (1-2), and Rovers had beaten Uni to already consign ‘the students’ to last place, and a tough end-of-season showed on Hurstville as the hosts danced to a lofty victory – their third in a row over Minotaurs.

Rovers beat Uni

Enfield Rovers soundly beat University of NSW at Garside Park on Sunday afternoon, sadly delivering this year’s wooden spoon to a Uni side that finished second in 2013.

Enfield hadn’t won at home all season and were eager from the get-go, a Tim Porter double added to Johan Andersson and Felipe Orjvela goals giving Rovers a happy send-off to a testing season while Uni lick their wounds over the off-season and contemplate a 12-game winless sequence.

A 0-0 draw in grade-20 helped Uni finish fourth and set up a knockout bout with Bulls this weekend.

Next week’s games

Mens State League Two enters the semifinals this weekend.

Premiers Hurstville FC play Southern Bulls for a grand final berth and Prospect United meets Rydalmere Lions in the knockout semifinal. 

In grade 20 premiers Rydalmere face Prospect and Bulls play Uni.