Round 7 Review – NPL 4 NSW Men’s
The National Premier Leagues 4 NSW Men’s competition began to heat up as it rained goals in the six games across the Round 7 fixtures
UNSW and Western NSW shared the points in a tense draw in the Match of the Round, Fraser Park joined Newcastle at the top of the table after both sides enjoyed victories. Elsewhere Hurstville and Hawkesbury gained ground on their finals push with wins and South Coast got off the mark with their first win of the campaign.
Match of the Round
UNSW FC 1 (Carrizo 8’)
Western NSW FC 1 (Long 7’)
Western NSW have continued their resurgence after a shaky start to the 2021 season, sharing the points with UNSW.
Kevin Lopes opened up the action with the first shot of the game, springing Western’s newest signing Jordan Bruce into action with an impressive first save.
Western broke the deadlock early on in the 7th minute after a brilliantly taken goal from a corner courtesy of Steven Long.
UNSW answered back immediately after Raul Carrizo converted his one-on-one to level the score and shift the momentum back his side’s way.
Bruce was spared his blushes in the 15th minute after he attempted to take the ball forward and send it up field, he was caught off guard by Gabrielle Trinco who came up from his blindside and deflected his kick towards goal which narrowly sailed over the bar.
The sides went into the break both with chances to put themselves in the lead, however were locked at 1-1.
Both sides eagerly pressed for the second which resulted in a back and forth second half which saw six cards distributed amongst both teams.
Lopes found himself front and centre again in the second half, his looping header went over Bruce’s reach but was cleared off the line by the resilient Western defence.
The Bathurst based side had their best opportunity of the game to regain their lead shortly after, Matthew Hobby found himself in on goal and his shot forced a great save from Conor Winn, the rebound of the save fell perfectly to Tatsuya Sato who mis-judged the bounce and blazed his shot over the open net.
UNSW pushed hard in the dying stages but were again denied by a desperate Western defence which deflected Lopes’ shot from the six yard box after he skilfully flicked the ball over the defenders head gifting him a golden shot at goals.
Both sides were left to rue their missed chances as they were forced to share the spoils in a 1-1 draw.
UNSW FC: 1. Connor Winn, 4. Luke Burke, 6. Joshua Chahal (c), 8. Ilan Kessler, 10. Maison Mcgeechan, 11. Kevin Lopes, 14. Raul Carrizo, 16. Daniel Olaniran, 17. Matthew Cuda, 18. Gabriele Trinco, 24. Keeghan Burke, 26. Cristhian Martinez.
Western NSW FC: 12. Jordan Bruce, 2. Ashton Arnott-Webb, 5. Hemza Arshad, 6. Thomas Rooke, 8. Luke Mutton, 9. James Christie, 10. Tatsuya Saya, 13. Sam Blatch, 14. Dillon Bell, 18. Steven Long,
Prospect United SC 0-4 Hawkesbury City FC
Hawkesbury have re-announced themselves in NPL 4 with an emphatic four goal victory on the road against Prospect. The Hawks came out of the blocks flying with four first half goals, a brace from Marco Tureinen and goals from Anthony Pedavoli and Gregory Kondek sealed the deal for the visitors.
Prospect held out a barrage of attacks from Hawkesbury and were not at their best as they performed well below their expected average. After their midweek extra-time FFA Cup win Prospect were high on confidence but were put back down to earth by Hawkesbury, they will need to bounce back quickly as they prepare to host the Flame next week.
Nepean FC 1-3 Hurstville FC
Hurstville have continued their impressive run of form knocking off Nepean after a phenomenal first half which saw them lead 3-0 heading into the break
Goals from Anthony Krkovski, Jaefar Al Khulaifawi and Michael Kotzambasis helped their side to a three goal advantage before Josh Viera gave Nepean a chance with his goal in the second half. Nepean came out of break rejuvenated but were unable to link up in the final third.
With this win Hurstville jumped into 4th on the ladder, overtaking their opponents in the process, Nepean sit in 5th with breathing room below them as the other sides continue to make up their lost games.
Parramatta FC 2-4 Newcastle Jets FC
A valiant Parramatta second half comeback has been out done by the Jets who regained their two goal advantage with two late goals to secure a 4-2 victory. Newcastle recaptured their magnificent goal scoring form in this outing netting two goals either side of the break.
The Eagles started to come into their own in the second half with goals from Adrian Epifannio and Zoran Kolundzic helping them sit level for the interim until the lethal Newcastle attack put the result beyond doubt with two late goals.
South Coast Flame FC 1-0 Western Rage
The Flame have registered their first win of the campaign after a Matt Mazevski header separated the sides in Wollongong. After a string of disappointing results South Coast returned to winners circle for the first time in 2021.
It was a tale of two halves the Flame saw the better of the chances in the first, however it was the Rage who found themselves on the front foot in the second but they were unable to convert on their chances and left Ian McLennan park empty handed. For the Rage they saw improvement from their performances in previous weeks but fell just short of the mark.
Camden Tigers FC 3-5 Fraser Park FC
Fraser Park and Camden rounded out the fixtures with an eight goal thriller. Fraser Park found themselves in dreamland going up by four goals in the opening fifteen minutes. Jonah Caragher, Shu Torihara, Anthony Musumeci and Paul Turrin had the first four as the clinical Fraser Park attack didn’t make any mistakes in the opening period
On the back of conceding four Camden managed to net back two of their own heading into the break, before getting their third in the second half. Amongst the scorers for Camden was Mitchell Hall, Matthew Lynch and Jayden Russell, with all the goals coming from set-pieces. Fraser Park pulled away in the end after Caragher netted his second, putting his side in joint first place with Newcastle.
-By NPL 4 NSW Men’s Writer, Dominic Criniti
