Round 6 Review – NPL 3 NSW Men’s
Goals, goals, goals! We were treated to a highlight reel of spectacular efforts from around the grounds in the latest round of the National Premier Leagues 3 NSW Men’s competition.
A whopping 29 goals were scored across the seven matches over the course of the weekend with Stanmore Hawks, Bankstown City and Inter Lions having recorded the standout results in round six.
Dulwich Hill registered a hard earned 1-0 victory against Parramatta FC at Melita Stadium; Western NSW Mariners endured a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Stanmore Hawks at Arlington Oval; Granville Rage and Dunbar Rovers played out a 1-1 draw at Garside Park; Bankstown United were on the wrong end of a 2-1 score line when they faced Hawkesbury City at Jensen Park; Sydney University fell to a shock 5-2 defeat against Inter Lions at Sydney University Football Ground and the wheels kept on turning for Gladesville Ryde Magic as they overcame Camden Tigers 2-1 at Christie Park in the lone match on Sunday.
This week’s match of the round took place at Ernie Smith Reserve as Football NSW oversaw the fixture between SD Raiders and Bankstown City Lions on Saturday night.
SD Raiders FC 1 Bankstown City Lions FC 5
Bankstown City Lions registered a comprehensive 5-1 victory over SD Raiders at Ernie Smith Reserve.
A stellar second half display saw the Bankstown put four past the Raiders with Lions’ captain Nikola Todoroski on hand to score a hat trick for his side – a player that has been in fine form for the host club.
The first opportunity of the match fell the way of Mirza Sehic after five minutes as his header rattled the post after he was picked out by Ante Tomic’s free kick.
The visitors first goal of the night arrived shortly after via Todoroski as the veteran striker muscled his way through the Raiders’ defence before slotting it past Michael Rutherford in goal.
Some great link up play between Tomic, Lawrence Hanna and Marko Filipovic almost led to their second just after the hour mark with Filipovic’s strike going agonizingly close.
It was the hosts who finished the half the stronger and they had a great chance to restore parity when Martin Vazquez’s header tested the Lions’ goal.
Raiders got on equal terms in the 44th minute thanks to their leading goal scorer Anthony Proia. The ball popped up nicely for Proia on the edge of the 18-yard box and he calmly side footed it past Carl Mcmahon into the right-hand corner of the goal.
The home side’s momentum carried over into the second half and they almost took the lead as Proia had his effort saved after centre back ’s James Raiti’s lobbed through ball found the striker in space.
Raiders continued to pressure the visitor’s goal and in the 51st minute they were awarded a penalty after Hanna gave away a clear foul after he brought down Raiders’ John Fahmi.
Fahmi brushed himself off and stepped up to take the penalty kick however the Lions were let off the hook as his effort flew over the crossbar, much to the relief of the away supporters.
From then on in, it was all Bankstown. The Lions restored their lead two minutes later as Hanna made quick amends as he laid off Todoroski for his second of the evening.
Todoroski completed his hat trick on the 57th minute after he once again linked up with Hanna. Following a darting run on the right side by Hanna, the number 10 found Todoroski unmarked in the box and the captain’s effort flew into the top left-hand corner.
Bankstown’s onslaught continued and they found their fourth goal of the encounter in the 67th minute via Tomic after the striker pounced on Rutherford after the Raiders’ shot stopper failed to clear his lines with his clearance rebounding off Tomic into the back of the net.
Raiders defender Lucas Rossi came within inches of compiling more misery on his side as his botched clearance narrowly avoided going into the back of his team’s net.
The visitors fifth and final goal arrived in the dying moments of injury time with substitute Hezio Silva Neto getting on the scoresheet after he was first to act on the loose ball following a parry from Rutherford.
5-1 at fulltime, Bankstown will be more than pleased with their result against the Raiders while the visitors will be ruing their missed chances with the penalty miss arguably the major turning point in the contest.
Match Stats
National Premier Leagues 3 NSW Men’s
SD RAIDERS FC 1 (Proia 44’)
BANKSTOWN CITY LIONS FC 5 (Todoroski 12’, 53’, 57’, Tomic 67’, Silva Neto 90+5’)
SD RAIDERS FC; 1.M.Rutherford(gk), 3.D.Marjanovic(15.S.Malfara 60’), 6.D.Stivala, 7.D.Bittar, 8.J.Raiti, 10.J.Fahmi(9.B.Welch 69’), 12.L.Rossi, 21.D.Molina, 22.A.Proia, 23.M.Toro Suazo, 24.M.Vazquez(4.G.Ljuboja 59’).
Substitutions Not Used – 5.J.Letta, 29.N.Bratic.
Yellow Cards – 12.L.Rossi 90’.
BANKSTOWN CITY LIONS FC; 1.C.Mcmahon(gk), 2.A.Savetta, 3.T.Boutoubia, 4.S.Dubocanin, 6.M.Stewart(24.D.Jakimovski 71’), 7.T.Markovski, 9.N.Todoroski(22.T.Borovickic 90’), 10.L.Hanna, 11.A.Tomic, 14.M.Filipovic(18.H.Silva Neto 78’), 16.M.Sehic.
Substitutions Not Used – 23.A.Ismail, 26.D.Trajkovski.
Yellow Cards – 3.T.Boutoubia 66’, 11.A.Tomic 79’, 2.A.Savetta 87’.
Parramatta FC – Dulwich Hill FC 0-1
Dulwich Hill snatched all three points at Melita Stadium on Saturday night as they defeated Parramatta FC 1-0.
The visitors bounced back from a disappointing loss last round against SD Raiders with the perfect away performance.
Resolute at the back, they took the lead in the 28th minute through Yoel Silvestre. The Dully attacker’s spectacular strike flew into the back of net with Peter Crevani claiming the assist with his perfectly weighted through ball setting Silvestre on goal.
Parramatta were unable to break down a well-organized Dully outfit and that strike midway through the first half proved to be the only goal of the contest.
Stanmore Hawks FC – Western NSW Mariners 6-1
Stanmore Hawks put Western NSW Mariners to the sword as they ran out 6-1 winners at Arlington Oval on Saturday night.
A lackluster contest in the first half, it was not until the second half that we were able to see either team hit the back of the net.
Two Hawks players registered hat tricks in the second half of the encounter with Sam Awad and Peter Yannopoulos grabbing three each while Ryan Campbell scored the Mariners’ sole goal in this fixture.
Granville Rage – Dunbar Rovers 1-1
Granville Rage secured a 1-1 draw against Dunbar Rovers in their match up at Garside Park on Saturday night.
Another poor first half performance cost Dunbar Rovers again on Saturday and they found themselves trailing after 25 minutes with the score staying that way up until the break.
Unlike the first half, the visitors came out of the sheds firing with opportunities falling left, right and centre. Their search for the equaliser paid off with twenty minutes to run as Gilad Swartz finished off Jaefar Al-Khulaifawi’s cross from the left-hand side.
Dunbar were unlucky not to steal it at the death when Cedric Mezieres fired wide of an open goal after Alex Crane found him unmarked in the box.
Bankstown United FC – Hawkesbury City FC 1-2
Hawkesbury City recorded their first win of the campaign as they came from behind to beat Bankstown United 2-1 at Jensen Park on Saturday night.
A terrible mix up at the back in the 28th minute saw Bankstown open the scoring via Eros Bergamin. The attacking midfielder intercepted an intended pass for Hawks’ keeper Daniel Schwarzer, before he nicked it around the shot stopper and tapped it into the back of the net to put his side in front.
The visitors restored parity just before the hour mark with a spot kick which was converted via Terry Pannowitz.
United’s Joshua Spina was given his marching orders in the aftermath of the penalty after a heated exchange with the referee.
With the one-man advantage, the Hawks eventually found the winner through Majid Eslami with five minutes left on the clock.
Sydney University SFC – Inter Lions FC 2-5
A five-star performance from Inter Lions saw them put five past Sydney University as they triumphed 5-2 at Sydney University Football Ground on Saturday night.
Inter raced to the lead and were 3-0 up at the break with goals to Stephen Stavropoulos, Domenico Tripodi and Goncalo Paradanta.
The visitors continued to pepper Uni’s goal and they were five to the good after Paradanta added another two to complete his hat trick.
Sydney Uni’s Daniel Barrett and Blake Serafin reduced the deficit however it was not enough as Inter pulled away with the shock result from this fixture.
Gladesville Ryde Magic – Camden Tigers FC 2-1
Gladesville Ryde Magic’s winning streak continued with a routine 2-1 win over Camden Tigers on Sunday afternoon at Christie Park.
Camden opened the scoring in this encounter with a headed effort before Magic found the equaliser from a corner kick with Lachlan Harte heading home for the hosts.
With the scores locked at 1-1 in the second half it was Magic who were able to pop up with the all-important winner with yet another headed goal from a corner, this time it was Aaron Khan who was on hand to secure all three points for the league leaders.
-By NPL 3 NSW Men’s Chief Writer Samuel Greco Schwartz (Twitter handle: @SamuelGS97)
