Men’s State League 1 Round 21 Review
It all comes down to the final weekend of Men’s State League 1 action with third to fifth position up for grabs.
North Shore Mariners and Gladesville Ryde Magic played out a stalemate in Match of the Round.
Match of the Round
North Shore Mariners 0 v Gladesville Ryde Magic 0
Gladesville Ryde Magic missed their chance to put themselves in the finals race in a 0-0 local derby at Northbridge Oval.
Most of the first half was dominated by North Shore Mariners, as they looked to avenge their first loss of the season last week.
Marquin Smith fired a sixth minute effort against the woodwork in one of the rare opportunities that they prized opened the Gladesville Ryde Magic.
Much like the game back in Round 10, Gladesville Ryde Magic were able to frustrate the North Shore side as most of their attempts were outside the box.
For the Magic – when they had the chance to break from defense, it was led by Alistair McKie.
The winger had Gladesville’s best chance of the first half with his 38th minute effort that stung the hands of Mariners’ keeper Anthony Zecchinati.
Once again it was veteran Kiriakos Tohouroglou who stood between North Shore Mariners and victory with several key saves including one off Tadhg Purcell right on halftime.
After the break North Shore Mariners continued to be frustrated by Tohouroglou and the Gladesville Ryde defense highlighted by a double save in the 49th minute.
North Shore Mariners coach Joe Haywood made several changes to try and find a goal from somewhere but none was forthcoming.
In fact it was the visitors who had the best chances late in the game to steal all three points. First Majid Eslami was through on goal in the 85th minute but didn’t put enough on his effort to beat Zecchinati.
That near miss almost lead to a sucker punch by North Shore Mariners. They went down the other end and Purcell did the hard work in heading it down but it bounced over the top.
Lachlan Harte had the final chance of the game as the Magic player strode down the wing but couldn’t keep his effort down enough and it ended 0-0.
Afterwards Joe Haywood was proud of securing the Club Championship.
“For us the last two rounds were frustrating but explained to the boys, what an achievement it was and focused on that,” he said.
“This afternoon – it was the same as last week, had a lot of chances but couldn’t finish.”
Likewise Gladesville Ryde Magic captain coach Kiriakos Tohouroglou rued their missed chances.
“We needed the three points today after the results of Saturday but our season is mostly finished,”
“Not going to lie they [North Shore] were all over us but we had the two best chances, that’s football. We move on.”
MATCH STATS
North Shore Mariners 0
Gladesville Ryde Magic 0
North Shore Mariners: Zecchinati, Grant, Wynter, Woodward, Cole, Lensink(Drake ‘), Mcalpine (Del Vecchio ‘ ), Smith, Mavin (Collins ‘ ), Lindsay and Purcell
Subs not used: Marr
Yellow cards: Collins, Lensink and Smith
Gladesville Ryde Magic: C. Gaitatzis, Rimmer, Nelson, Martinez, Mckie (Morris ‘ ), Harte, Kerr, Yannopoulos (Eslami ’45), Parry, Daskalopoulos and Tohouroglou
Subs not used: Paradisis and Cooper
Yellow card: Kerr
Western NSW Mariners 1 v Stanmore Hawks 0
Western NSW Mariners produced a solid defensive effort to defeat Stanmore Hawks.
Stanmore Hawks came into last night’s game in form and peppered the Mariners goal.
Andrew Fearnley’s men stood firm and scored right before half-time.
Andrew Scimone placed a perfect cross onto Kane Hughes’ head to record two wins this week.
Nepean FC 2 v Balmain Tigers 2
Balmain Tigers had to dig deep for a 2-2 draw against Nepean FC.
Joel Cook gave Joe Di Giulio and Balmain Tigers a great start with his goal.
Nepean responded through Kodai Hayashi and a rare Miki Awad goal to take a surprise lead.
Balmain Tigers would salvage a point and hold onto fifth spot thanks a Scott Tonkin late goal.
Rydalmere Lions 3 v Hills Brumbies 2
A late Khalid Allybokus winner locked up second place for Rydalmere Lions in a five goal thriller.
The Lions struck first through young Aaron Avery before Hills Brumbies hit back through Christopher Bedzo’s brace.
Zakeriya Elrich came on as a half-time substitute and converted a penalty to bring it back to 2-2.
Hills Brumbies came hard but were repelled by Lions ‘keeper Harrick Sinpraseuth. His heroics allowed the unlikely Allybokus to seal the win.
Dulwich Hill 1 v Inter Lions 3
It was the Daniel Fogarty show as Inter Lions swept aside Dulwich Hill this afternoon.
Fogarty scored twice in the first half ably supported by captain coach Lachlan Wright in midfield.
Dully clawed one back through Alex Yin and Christopher Pinto hit the post in their highlights of the day.
Fogarty completed his hat-trick in the second half, as Dully striker Sam Messam was sent off.
Granville Rage 1 v Hawkesbury City SC 2
Hawkesbury City continued their late season win streak with a win over Granville Rage.
Finals football might be gone but the revival of the Hawks form revival has been encouraging.
Jason Browne and Ben Gough secured Hawkesbury’s second win on the trot.
Tim Raftopoulos got the lone strike for the home side for some rare joy in a long season.
– by Justin Davies, Men’s State League 1 Reporter
