Round 20 Review – PS4 NPL 2 NSW Men’s
If any round of matches were needed to show the competitiveness of the PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues 2 NSW Men’s competition, one needs to look no further than this weeks’ results.
All four of the top clubs suffered defeats, leaders Western Sydney Wanderers going down to thirteenth placed Bankstown Berries, second placed Sydney FC throwing away a two goal lead to ninth placed Macarthur Rams, while third placed Bankstown City failed to take advantage, losing at home to seventh placed Mount Druitt Town Rangers.
And eleventh placed Fraser Park continued their amazing sequence of wins, beating fourth placed Marconi.
And Spirit FC kept up their resurgence, with a 1-0 win over St George in this week’s Match of the Round.
St George v Spirit FC
A late winner by Mark McAlpine was enough to send Spirit FC away from St George Stadium with all three points, continuing their recent revival, the victory their third in a row.
After finding themselves bottom of the table a month ago, a couple of wins over the past fortnight, against Mount Druitt Town and Northern Tigers, had helped move Spirit away from the bottom rung, and they were keen to improve further with the visit to St George. Absent from play last week, Spirit were more than ready.
The Saints, for their part, were hoping to put last week’s mauling at the hands of Sydney FC behind them, and welcomed back to the starting lineup four players absent from that match. Back into the team came defenders Billy Darwich and Peter Vassilis, with Reuben Lagos and Stefan de Jesus back in the middle.
But while they started much better than last week, a Stevan Ilic sweep across the face of goal an early chance, later opportunities were few and far between. In fact, there were few for either side in a match which became bogged down in midfield, and any clear cut chances could be counted on one hand.
Most of the opportunities which were on offer fell the way of Spirit, Kim Changyu skimming the crossbar with a strike midway through the first half and Grant Cornwell skewing a shot across the face of goal in another near miss, Reuben Agyei-Danso just failing to get a touch at the far post.
Two minutes after that, Daniel Cunningham was just over following a corner from Jake Harris, and that was about it. The defences held sway, neither midfield could construct much in the way of opportunities for their front men, and this had 0-0 written all over it.
Not much changed in the second half, chances were at a minimum though most territorial pressure came from the visitors. Apart from one long range strike from Agyei-Danso, which went wide, again the match threw up not much more than a midfield slog.
Both teams tried to change what appeared an inevitability, St George bringing on Wassim Hijazi for Ilic, and Jacob Sullivan for de Jesus, while Spirit threw on, firstly Henry Wells, Brad Gibson and then Mark McAlpine.
And with just four minutes remaining, the spoils fell the way of Spirit FC. And substitute McAlpine.
A scoreless draw was on its way but with Spirit surging late, George Bouropoulos did well in saving an initial Spirit attack, but McAlpine was there to pick up the pieces, squeezing home the winner in the dying moments.
A great three points for Spirit, who have the chance over the next fortnight to make some further inroads into the ladder, with both of their rescheduled games occurring on consecutive Wednesdays. St George will need to regroup, now four games without a win.
St George 0 v Spirit FC 1 (Mark McAlpine 86’)
Saturday 16 July 2016
at St George Stadium, Kyeemagh
Referee: T Nash
Assts: T Plasto and E Ryan
St George: 1. George Bouropoulos 4. Johnathan Kontalis 5. Billy Darwich 6. Reuben Lagos 7. Stefan de Jesus (14. Jacob Sullivan 75’) 8. Tarik Ercan 9. Stevan Ilic (11. Wassim Hijazi 70’) 10. Bruno Pivato 13. Peter Vassilis (c) 18. Yuta Konagaya 20. Jayden McLeod.
Subs not used: 50. Mark Stivic 12. Rina Zenari 26. Tayfun Buyukkopru
Yellow cards: Billy Darwich
Coaches: Ivo de Jesus and Nass Martino
Spirit FC: 51. David Lowery 2. Daniel Cunningham (c) 5. Andrew Robertson 6. Alexander Doyle 7. Jacob Harris (3. Henry Wells 67’) 8. Grant Cornwell 10. Kim Changyu 11. David Mavisa (18. Brad Gibson 67’) 13. Phillip Reilly 19. Tom Lovell 21. Reuben Agyei-Danso (17. Mark McAlpine 82’)
Subs not used: 1. Murray Nelson 15. Timothy Porter
Yellow Cards: Kim Changyu, Grant Cornwell
Coach: Mark McCormick
Macarthur Rams v Sydney FC
What a turnaround for Macarthur Rams. After having suffered their heaviest defeat of the season against Sydney FC, a 0-7 reverse back in round seven, they were facing down the barrel of another defeat on Saturday night.
Two goals down after the hour, to Nicola Kuleski and Yianni Spyrakis, a crazy eight minutes saw the Rams turn that deficit into a 3-2 lead.
Yotaro Hagiwara started the comeback, scoring in the 71st, before Kevin Ly drew Macarthur level four minutes after that. Before Sydney FC could recover from that double blow, they found themselves behind after Mason Versi scored in the 79th.
But if Sydney FC had any thoughts and hopes of salvaging the game, that was ended when Cristian Leiva Martinez made the win secure with the final kick of the game.
Macarthur Rams 4 (Yotaro Hagiwara 72’, Kevin Ly 76’, Mason Versi 79’, Cristian Leiva Martinez 90+3’) v Sydney FC 2 (Nicola Kuleski 19’, Yianni Spyrakis 66’)
Referee: Jerry Bitas
Assts; Laken Ledden and Vishaal Prasad
Macarthur Rams: 1. Nikodin Matic 2. Craig Cooley 6. Kevin Ly 7. Eli Squillacioti (8. Cristian Leiva Martinez) 9. Anthony Schmidt 10. Eros Bergamin (3. Mitchell Thompson) 12. David McMurray 13. Jordan Cracknell 16. Mason Versi 17. James Ralston 19. Damien Travis (15. Yotaro Hagiwara).
Sydney FC: 1. Mitchell Evans 2. Brendan Curtis 3. Patrick Flottmann 4. George Timotheou 5. Yianni Spyrakis 6. Nicola Kuleski 7. Daniel Araujo 9. Bai Antoniou (27. Daniel Maskin) 11. Christopher Arditti (13. Matthew Green)16. William Mutch 17. Chris Zuvela (19. Emmanuel Gonzalez).
Fraser Park v Marconi
What to say about Fraser Park? Six wins and a draw from the past seven games has lifted Fraser to tenth on the ladder and there seems no reason why that record cannot continue.
This time it was the turn of Marconi to suffer at the hands of a revitalised Fraser Park outfit, who took the lead on twenty two minutes and never looked back.
Jordan Simpson got the ball rolling midway through the first half, and just before half time, Nikola Todoroski doubled the advantage.
Marko Jesic brought one back for Marconi, but the two goal buffer was restored when Simpson got his second of the night, with six minutes remaining.
It could safely be said that it was Fraser’s toughest test in recent times, and one they came through with flying colours.
Fraser Park 3 (Jordan Simpson 22’, 84’, Nikola Todoroski 42’) v Marconi 1 (Marko Jesic 56’)
Fraser Park: 1. Wayne Estavao 2. Rocci Gabey 4. Peter Crevani (9. Jeffrey Issa) 5. Nicholas Dimitropoulos 6. Alexander Todoroski 14. Nikola Todoroski 15. Jordan Simpson 16. Ben Vidaic 17. Nathan Sansom 18. Alvaro Malmierca (13. Sang Ho Lee) 20. Jordan Roberts.
Marconi: 1. Chad Taylor 5. Peter Pelekanos 7. Mirjan Pavlovic 8. Sean Rooney 10. Marko Jesic 11. Sam Perre (9. Kenta Hasegawa) 14. Peter Markovic (2. Jarrad Ross) 16. Noah Chianese (25. Phillip Makrys) 17. Steven Drewery 18. Brandon Vella 23. Chrisptoher Nunes.
Bankstown Berries v Western Sydney Wanderers
It seemed business as usual for the competition’s top dogs after Cameron Devlin put the Wanderers ahead after just nine minutes. A long drive from outside the box gave the Wanderers an early break.
But the Berries had other ideas and drew level through Gavin Forbes, the striker having found his scoring boots in recent weeks, midway through the half. Forbes forced home a Nicholas Paras corner for the equaliser.
The home side further surprised the visitors when Tai Smith put the Berries in front just two minutes after the restart, and extended the lead when Paras, the Berries’ leading scorer, whipped home a free kick on the hour mark.
Kyle Cimenti scored with under ten minutes remaining to bring it back to 3-2, but despite some late pressure, the Berries hung on for a very valuable victory.
Bankstown Berries 3 (Gavin Forbes, Tai Smith, Nicholas Paras) v Western Sydney Wanderers 2 (Cameron Devlin, Kyle Cimenti)
Northern Tigers v Mounties Wanderers
Mounties Wanderers were the big winners of the weekend, the highest ranked team to come away with a victory, after a 2-1 defeat of Northern Tigers.
It was a close run thing though, relying on a Matthew West goal sixteen minutes from time to take the points.
Reid Taylor had given Mounties the lead midway through the first half, but any hopes they had that they would take that advantage into the break were dashed when Max Glanville equalised right on half time.
But West, against his former club, sealed the result in the second half.
Mounties have the chance to jump to third, if the result against Spirit FC goes their way next Wednesday night.
Northern Tigers 1 (Max Glanville 45’) v Mounties Wanderers 2 (Reid Taylor 26’, Matthew West 74’)
Bankstown City v Mount Druitt Town Rangers
Bankstown City suffered their third defeat in a row, all 3-2 losses at that, when the visiting Mount Druitt Town Rangers took all the points away from Jensen Park.
A double to Nick Trimble was the highlight, with Rangers’ goals being rounded out by Nuno Soares Gomes.
The Lions got on the scoresheet courtesy of Todd Halloran and Dhari Alsaad, but it wasn’t enough. Despite the loss, Bankstown remain third, but only on goal difference, while Mount Druitt Town keep sixth but just three points behind the Lions in a compact table.
Bankstown City 2 (Todd Halloran, Dhari Alsaad) v Mount Druitt Town Rangers 3 (Nick Trimble 2, Nuno Soares Gomes)
Central Coast Mariners v North Shore Mariners
There were no goals up at the Coast where Central Coast and North Shore ground out a 0-0 draw.
Not a result which will satisfy either side, as Central Coast seek to challenge for a finals berth while North Shore drop further adrift at the bottom of the ladder.
Central Coast Mariners 0 v North Shore Mariners 0
– by Peter Rowney, Play Station 4 National Premier Leagues 2 NSW Men’s Reporter
