Christopher Payne has scored a hat-trick of goals to lead Manly United to their first victory of the season in the IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 competition, beating Sydney United 58 in a come from behind effort at Sydney United Sports Centre.
Manly looked promising early as a few chances presented themselves inside Sydney United’s half.
The first came through the form of a powerful strike from 30 yards out from Daniel Grant, and the second from a strong run through the midfield by Brendan Cholakian, who beat two defenders to open up an opportunity in the box for Jack Green, but his shot was just pushed to the right of the goal mouth and the scorers weren’t troubled.
Sydney United 58 were then able to hold some sustained pressure inside Manly’s half, and it lead to a header into the box by Mitchell Speer, for which Mitchell Stamatellis took on the volley and with a cracking strike only just went over the crossbar and the outstretched hand of Manly goalkeeper Dylan Mitchell.
A poor challenge from Joshua Lawson saw referee Kevin Peddie award Sydney United 58 a free kick opportunity just 25 yards out.
Ivan Pavlak nailed it into the box to find Ibrahim Haydar who headed the ball home into the back of the net to take the home side 1-0 up after 25 minutes.
Manly United soon hit back though; in the 34′ minute Christopher Payne found himself in open space down the right side after beating some clumsy Sydney United 58 defence, calmly slotted the ball past goalkeeper to level the scores.
Both teams had opportunities to go into the half time break with the lead but neither were able to capitalise on opportunities and went into the sheds locked up at one a piece.
Sydney United 58 came out all guns blazing after the break. After the ball was held up in the Manly’s box and they failed to clear it out, Robert Mileski jumped on the opportunity and with his right foot was able to beat the goalkeeper to send United 2-1 up.
73′ minutes in, Theo Kofinas was awarded a yellow card for a raised elbow, and then after a melee in the middle of the pitch Ibrahim Haydar received a red card after Cholakian was knocked to the deck.
It was a huge blow for Haydar who only just returned from an extensive injury layoff, but it wasn’t to be a week to remember for his brother Ali either who was given his marching orders on Saturday for the Stallions in their loss to the Sutherland Sharks.
This completely changed the game and with only 5′ minutes remaining in normal time Cholakian was able to make space through the Sydney United 58 defence and found Payne who slotted the ball past the keeper to level the scores.
Then in the dying stages of the match, Manly hit the lead for the first time in the match with Tommy Morrisey again finding holes in the depleted United defence. He was able to put a ball through into the box which again found Payne who headed it home for his third of the day and his fourth of his 2014 campaign to win the game for Manly United.
It was an exceptional performance from Manly United who started with three players aged only 18 years of age. They were able to make the most of their opportunities after Sydney United 58 was left with only 10 men.
After the game Manly United coach Craig Midgley was extremely happy with how his inexperienced team performed.
“We had two pretty big injuries that we got during the week and to go to Sydney United and to get a result like that was superb," he said.
“A win brings confidence and we’ll have a good week at training and we’ll be looking to repeat that kind of performance.”
Meanwhile, Sydney United 58 coach Mark Rudan was frustrated with how his team let the game slip from their grasp.
“In the second half, 2-1 up, we were comfortable, and then just some ill-discipline cost us and from there we made it really tough for ourselves," he said.
“There was a lot to like about our performance, we are slowly getting back there and it’s very early in the season and the results can go either way."
Match Stats
Sydney United 58 2 (Ibrahim Haydar 25′, Robert Mileski 46′)
Manly United FC 3 (Christopher Payne 35′, 85′, 88′)
Sunday 6th April, 2014
Sydney United Sports Centre
Referee: Kevin Peddie
Assistant Referees: Nick Backo and Matt McOrist
Fourth Official: Brett Lorimer
Sydney United 58: 1.Diego Barcena; 19.Matthew Bilic, 11.Luka Glavas (C), 20.Ibrahim Haydar, 13.Josip Jadric (Robert Mileski 46′), 17.Theo Kofinas, 12.Ivan Pavlak (Ben Juman 79′), 4.Nathan Sherlock, 14. Mitchell Speer, 6. Mitchell Stamatellis, 2.Anthony Tomelic
Substitutes Not Used: 7. Richard Darko, 41.Jayden Diacono, 16. Stepjan Paric
Yellow cards: Ivan Pavlak 73′
Red cards: Ibrahim Haydar 73′
Manly United FC: 1.Dylan Mitchell; 10.Brendan Cholakian, 4.Graeme Forbes (C), 8. Daniel Grant, 22.Jack Green (Tommy Morrisey 68′), 5.Joshua Lawson, 9.Christopher Payne, 6. Joshua Ward (Daniel Sadic 72′), 11.Roberto Speranza, 12.Dominic Ferguson (Masakatau Tanaka 61′), 23. Dan Dranopololy
Substitutes Not Used: 7.Damir Prodanovic, 20. Tonu Liiband
Yellow Cards: Joshua Lawson ‘25
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3- Christopher Payne (MU)
2-Brendan Cholakian (MU)
1- Ivan Pavlak (SU)
-By Jack Hislop
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