Blacktown City snatch winner in thriller
Current Australian PlayStation 4 National Premier League Champions Blacktown City were forced to come from behind to snatch a thrilling 3-2 win against Sydney United 58 at Lily’s Football Park on Sunday.
A match winning goal to Travis Major in the 76th minute was enough for Blacktown to claim all three points in the first match of it’s PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s campaign
The opening exchanges of the match were evenly shared between the two sides.
Sydney United 58’s Panni Nikas had the first real chance of the match when his shot from just outside the penalty area sailed narrowly wide.
It was another scare for Blacktown in the 18th minute when Chris Payne pounced on a poorly cleared ball in the City penalty and knocked it into the back of the net.
However, the offside flag of the assistant referee quickly quelled the cheers of the Sydney United 58 supporters.
Despite Sydney United’s early chances it was Blacktown who opened the scoring courtesy of a powerful strike from Sasa Macura in the 21st minute.
A well hit Danny Choi corner found an unmarked Macura who smashed the ball into the back of the net for a 1-0 Blacktown lead.
Despite some enterprising play from United 58’s Payne and Robbie Mileski, Blacktown held onto their one goal advantage when the whistle for half time sounded.
United lifted their intensity when they returned after the break and it caught Blacktown off guard.
Sydney United 58 danger man Panni Nikkas put his side on the scoreboard in the 54th minute when he found space on the edge of the box before hammering home with a driven shot.
Eddie Bosnar has built a career on his ability from set pieces and he didn’t disappoint new coach Mark Rudan.
The former J-League defender drilled his 61st minute free kick past a diving Nenad Vekic to make it 2-1 for the visitors.
Only minutes later Bosnar went from hero to zero when he was sent off after denying Blacktown’s Joey Gibbs a certain goal with a hand ball in the box.
It was to be a key moment of the match as the away side along with Bosnar were clearly dismayed with the decision.
Gibbs didn’t miss a beat to put the subsequent penalty past the keeper to level the scores at 2-2.
Blacktown took advantage of the man advantage were soon back in front.
Mitchell Mallia whipped in a cross that found the head of Travis Major and past Sydney United 58 keeper Tom Manos for the match winner.
Blacktown City coach Mark Crittenden was delighted with his side’s round one victory.
“It’s always good to get the win first up,” he said.
“The heat on the synthetic pitch was tough for both squads.
“I’ve always got a strong belief in my boys. Of course the send-off helped us but at the end of the day you still have to put the ball in the back of the net.”
Sydney United 58’s Panni Nikas said the stifling heat and synthetic pitch took its toll on his team.
“I thought the team’s performance got better as the game went on, but the conditions were tough.
“From a player’s point of view, it is very hard for both teams to play at a high tempo for 90 minutes on the synthetic pitch.
“The red card was a game changing moment. We’re not too sure if it hit his hand. It still didn’t warrant a red card but it definitely changed the momentum of the match.
Match Stats
Sunday 13th March 2016
Blacktown City 3 (Macura 21’, Gibbs (pen) 70’, Major 76’)
Sydney United 58: (Nikas 54’, Bosnar 61’)
Lily’s Football Centre, Seven Hills
Referee: B Abraham
Assistant Referees: A. Giev, P. Teleki
Fourth Official: T.Harris
Blacktown City: 1.VEKIC,Nenad; 3.SPERANZA,Giorgio, 6.LEWIS,Matthew, 7.MAJOR,Travis, 8.MACURA,Sasa, 9.GIBBS,Joey, 10. EVANS, Conor (Riko Sasaki 59’), 11. CHOI, Danny Seung-Joo, 14. MAALLIA, Mitchell (Grozdanovski 77’), 17. BEUMIE, Lewis (Speranza 71’), 19. CAIRNCROSS, Zachary
Substitues not used: 20.PRENDERGAST, Tristan
Yellow cards: Travis Major 36’, Danny Seung-Joo Choi 83’, Zachary Cairncross 60’
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney United 58: 2.VISMAS, Kristopher(Donatello), 3.MOCHIZUKI, Masato, 4.BOSAR, Eddie, 6.CRISTOPHER Payne(Taneski 77’), 7.YUTARO, Sun (Bilic), 8.Traintis Peter, 10.MILESKI, Robert, 14.STAVROULAKIS, Nicholas, 21, MANOS, Thomas, 22. FRAGOGIANNIS, Yianni, 23. NIKAS Panagioltis
Substitutes Not Used: 1.DEPTA, Andrew, 12.RIZOSKO, Mark
Yellow Cards: Nicholas Stavroulakis 45’
Red Cards: Eddie Bosner 67’
Player Ratings
3 – Joey Gibbs (BC)
2 – Danny Choi (BC)
1 – Panni Nikas (SU)
-by Jack Hislop, PlayStation® National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 Reporter, at Lilys Football Stadium.
