Stallions no match for Manly
MANLY United have made it two wins in a row, after a strike in each half from Brendan Cholakian and Chris Payne earned them all three points on a cold night at Marconi Stadium.
The visitors started brightly, buoyed by their success last week, and used the flanks to great advantage to exploit the Marconi defence. Their best chance fell to Bastien Beuchat who wasn’t able to keep his shot down.
United kept pressing their opponent, earning their due reward in the 19th minute. A corner was swung in creating havoc in the box before the ball fell to Cholakian who opened the scoring.
The rest of the half followed the same pattern as Manly dominated the possession and chances. Daniel Bragg found himself with some space on the edge of the box and he produced a nice shot that was hit straight at Stallions keeper Sam Nastic.
Marconi registered their first shot on target late in the first half with a fluid passing movement down the left which was undone by the resulting shot that was hit well into the grandstand.
This would be the Stallions’ lone foray into the shots market in the first half, as Manly pressed them again, unlucky not to be ahead when Daniel Saric was caught offside from a lovely through ball. Manly United had the stat that counted though leading the scoreboard.
There was no respite for the underfire Stallions after the break. Custodian Nastic was once again called into action, tipping a free-kick wide for a corner. The follow up fell to Saric who couldn’t keep the header down.
Manly were keen to double the pain for the Stallions, and they did so through Payne. The Stallions defence failed to clear a ball allowing the striker to sneak through, go around the keeper, and make it two-nil. Manly were well ahead and hungry for much more.
They were a constant attacking threat but the contest petered out in the final fifteen as the visitors saw out the result. It was a well deserved second win of the season for the Northern Beaches club.
Manly boss Paul Dee was full of praise for his side, but said they need to capitalise more on the chances they create.
“The boys deserve every bit of that, they are a hard working team and earned the last two results,” said a happy Dee.
“Most pleasing was the amount of chances created was a real positive.”
Coach Paul Carter was disappointed with the result and said the impending return of some bodies will help get their season rolling.
“We are doing it tough, playing without strikers and it is killing us,” said a frustrated Carter.
“We worked hard tonight but were punished, despite being quite good everywhere but the box.”
Match Stats
Marconi Stallions FC 0
Manly United FC 2 (Cholakian ’19, Payne ‘62)
Saturday April 11, 2015
Marconi Stadium, Bossley Park
Referee: Benjamin Abraham
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields and Nicholas Backo
Fourth Official: Jack Casey
Marconi Stallions FC: Nastic; Mijic, Rhodes, Lum (Boyadjian ’78), Simonovski, Talevski (Bright ’62), Tsovolos (Austin ‘55, Drewery, Travis, Nunes, Schmidt
Substitutes not used: Thompson,Sekutkovski
Yellow cards: Austin
Manly United FC: Liiband; Paull, Lobb, Williams, Payne (Morrissey ’89), Beuchat, Cholakian, Parkhouse (McDonald ’82), Bragg, Oughtred, Saric (Castelnuovo ’78)
Substitutes not used: Kuleski, Catlin
Yellow cards: Nil
Player ratings:
3. Christopher Payne (Manly)
2. Brendan Cholakian (Manly)
1. Daniel Saric (Manly)
– by Justin Davies, PS4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 Reporter, at Marconi Stadium
