White Eagles secure crucial three points over Parramatta FC
Bonnyrigg White Eagles continued their climb up the PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s ladder with a confident 3-2 victory over Parramatta FC at Bonnyrigg Sports Club on Saturday night.
First half goals from Martin Lo and Luke Ivanovic alongside a 79th minute Nikola Zonjic strike helped the home side to all three points.
Parramatta FC made them work for it with goals from Daniel Rezo and Gosue Sama.
Rock bottom Parramatta FC came out fired up in this clash – Bonnyrigg White Eagles shot stopper James Chronopoulos was called on twice to deny the visitors in the early stages.
First Jordan Crighton took the ball down smartly, then from a free-kick Daniel Rezo forced Chronopoulos to dive full stretch to keep the match scoreless.
It was the home side who opened the scoring when Lo struck after ten minutes played.
Lo rifled his shot past Ryan Norval to give Bonnyrigg White Eagles a 1-0 lead.
Lo’s celebrations were short lived as five minutes later the youngster came off with a dislocated shoulder compounding further on the White Eagles’ disastrous injury toll.
Bonnyrigg doubled their lead after 23 minutes – 16-year-old sensation Ivanovic was on hand to slide home after some incisive build up from substitute Nikola Krljar.
Young striker Hassan Jalloh got in on the action at around the half hour mark as he burst into the area after beating several defenders. He cut the ball back for Ivanovic who couldn’t finish the chance.
With two minutes till the break the home side suffered yet another injury setback this time to defender Zachary Mackenzie who came off with a suspected torn hamstring.
Parramatta FC would find a way back into the contest right before half-time. A goalmouth scramble was turned in by Rezo to make it 2-1.
The rain began to fall at the start of the second half and it was the perfect backdrop for what was becoming a tense encounter.
However, it didn’t take Bonnyrigg along to restore their two-goal lead.
A short corner routine was worked to Mun-Soo Gil who put a delightful cross on the head of club favourite Nikola Zonjic to make it 3-1.
The visitors weren’t going to go down easy and Gosue Sama made it 3-2 with a close range header, but it wouldn’t be anymore than a late consolation goal.
Bonnyrigg White Eagles coach Brian Brown was delighted with the points.
“We’ve been struggling with injuries especially losing two more tonight. The boys dug deep though and got the points.” Brown said.
Parramatta FC coach Franco Consentino thought his side played better than the scoreline suggested.
“We deserved to win out there tonight,’ he said.
"We started off well but Bonnyrigg scored off three shots. That is the breaks in football.”
Match Stats
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 3 (Lo ’10, Ivanovic ’23 and Zonjic ’78)
Parramatta FC: 2 (Rezo ’45 and G. Sama ’89)
Saturday, May 20 2017
Bonnyrigg Sports Club, Bonnyrigg
Referee: M. Weiner
Assistant Referees: R. Osborne & J. Park
Fourth Official: A. Mansour
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1. CHRONOPOULOS James, 3. VRANKOVIC David, 6. MACKENZIE Zachary (SPRUCE ’43), 8. DANASKOS Troy, 10. LO Martin (KRLJAR ’15), 12. GIL Mun-Soo, 14. MCDONALD Taylor (J. MCKENZIE ’84), 16. GALLAWAY Samuel, 21. JALLOH Hassan, 27. IVANKOVIC Luke and 36. ZONJIC Nikola
Substitues not used: 18. CUPAC Damian and 20. SAVICIC Stevan
Yellow cards: Gil, Ivanovic and McDonald
Red cards: nil
Parramatta FC: 1. NORVAL Ryan, 4. FONDYKE Howard, 5. CERASOLI Gino, 8. REZO Daniel, 9 SAMA Gosue, 10. SAMA Marco, 11. JOHNSTONE Ryan, 14. CRIGHTON Jordan (DONATIELLO ’87), 15. HAYDAR Ibrahim, 16. SALINAS William (CHYMIAK ’86) and 20. GERSBACH Joshua
Substitutes not used: 2. AGATHOS Spiros, 12. GIBSON Keenan and 21. MOORE Christopher
Yellow cards: Fondyke and Cerasoli
Red cards: nil
Player Ratings
3: Luke Ivanovic (BWE)
2: Nikola Krljar (BWE)
1: Hassan Jalloh (BWE)
-By PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Justin Davies
