Blacktown City secure Premiership for 2015
Blacktown City FC brought home the Premiership in style at Lilys Football Stadium on a lovely Sunday afternoon.
City flexed its considerable muscle as it showed its Premiership credentials in stunning fashion to dominate the Sutherland Sharks in a one-sided contest that finished 4-1.
The damage was well and truly done in the first half as Travis Major and Danny Choi both notched braces to put the contest – and the Premiership race – to bed.
Truth be told, it would have taken an absolute disaster for Blacktown to fall behind APIA Leichhardt and the pressure was quickly with Major and Choi both netting their first goals before the game was even 20 minutes old.
The brilliant midfield axis of Patrick Antelmi and Daniel Araujo controlled the game for City and it was the latter who carved open the Sharks defence with a lovely bit of play to open the door for Major’s opener.
A lovely one-two combination released the Spaniard into the box and allowed him to shoot low and hard only to be denied by Sharks captain Nathan Denham.
Denham could only parry the ball into the path of the onrushing Major who tucked home easily to kick off the Premiership celebrations after just six minutes.
Major turned supplier just 12 minutes later when he lead a superb counter-attack, picking up a cleared corner in his defensive half and leading the charge at an undermanned Sutherland defence.
Choi redirected his run from Major’s right to run behind Major, losing his man in the process and opening up an opportunity just inside the left of the box which Major recognized with a nice little ball into Choi’s path, who did not disappoint with a beautiful finish.
While the Blacktown offence shredded the Sharks defence to ribbons, at the other end the battle between City defence and Sutherland offence was equally one-sided.
Nenad Vekic was largely untroubled as Matthew Lewis and captain Zachary Cairncross comprehensively covered the threat of Charles Lockolingoy and Steve Hayes.
When they were caught out, Lockolingoy was not ruthless enough to take his opportunity.
His golden moment arrived in the 29th minute when he was found completely unmarked at the top of the six-yard box, but could only muster a tame effort straight at Vekic.
City would not be so accommodating at the other end.
Major had the ball in the back of the net after 31 minutes, but was ruled offside having moved a touch to early as a free-kick was sent into the box.
The officials would not deny him four minutes later when Antelmi produced the pass of the game from just inside his own half to split the Sutherland midfield and defence with one ball to find Mitch Mallia on the left.
Mallia composed himself and centered the ball to Major, who finished easily from close range.
It was 4-0 just minutes later when Araujo did his best to outdo his partner in crime Antelmi when he produced a lovely ball of his own to find Choi speeding into the right side of the box, before beating Denham with a lovely first-time finish.
With the damage well and truly done, the second half was not played with the same intensity, but it remained a relatively one-way affair.
Mallia, Joey Gibbs and Robert Speranza all tried their luck for City to little avail, while at the other end Vekic was tested once before a terrific strike from Peter O’Shea provided something of a consolation for the Sharks as the curtain closed on their season.
Blacktown City coach Mark Crittenden – in his trademark club polo and cap – was beaming with pride after the game as he watched his men celebrate sweet premiership triumph.
“I’m ecstatic. Absolutely ecstatic. It’s such a long and hard season that starts way back in November and we’ve had a few changes to personnel, but we were confident that what we bought in would be able to do the job,” Crittenden said.
“The boys have been outstanding. They deserve everything today. The whole club does, it’s great.”
Crittenden said that while he expected a strong finals campaign to come from his boys with hopefully more success to celebrate, he felt winning the league was a huge achievement in its own right.
“Australia loves a grand final and we see it across all the sports, but after 22 rounds, you’ve played everyone twice and you come out on top, I think that’s the benchmark.
“To win this one and come out on top is special. Defensively we’ve been good an to win a league you have to have the best defensive record in the league, which we did, and we had great power going forward, too.”
A somber Steve O’Connor – who was coaching his last game at the Sharks – said it was a poor note to finish the season on, but said the club had to respond next season.
“The season as a whole was a bit disappointing. We lost some important players early on including a captain, our top scorer and second top scorer from last season and never really replaced that quality,” O’Connor said.
“We bought in some young players and new ones and worked from there and I think we had our moments. Today was our biggest loss of the year I think, so it was the only time we were completely outplayed.
“Maybe it was a game to many for us, the season had ended for us so getting the boys up for it.
“I’ve enjoyed my year at the club. It’s a reasonable club but I think they need to move forward and bring some more players in.
“That’s what I wanted to do to build the club up and challenge for top four next year, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case.”
Match Stats
Blacktown City 4 (Major 6’, 35’, Choi 18’, 39’)
Sutherland Sharks 1 (O’Shea 89’)
Sunday August 16, 2015
Lily’s Football Centre
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant Referees: Scott Edeling and Joon Park
Fourth Official: Tristan Harris
Blacktown City FC: Vekic, Antelmi, Araujo, Cairncross, Choi (Perre 76’), Evans (Tomaras 64’), Fragogiannis, Lewis, Mallia, Speranza, Major (Gibbs 64’)
Substitutes not used: Prendergast, Beumie
Yellow Cards:
Sutherland Sharks FC: Denham, McKenzie, Hayes (Cox 67’), Stergiou, Jovovic, Kakavelis, Caton (Combes 67’), Tratt, O’Connell, Lockolingoy, Park (O’Shea 75’)
Substitutes not used: Curtis, Depta
Yellow Cards:
-By Matthew Galea, National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 Editor, at Lilys Football Stadium
