White Eagles bounce back to winning ways
Bonnyrigg White Eagles defeated Hakoah Sydney City East 4-2 in an exciting PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s Round 10 clash at Hensley Athletic Field.
Bonnyrigg was made to fight hard for the result against a brave, yet inconsistent, Hakoah who seem to struggle to get the points at home.
In the fifth minute of play a nice shot from outside the box by Jordan Mundell for Hakoah Sydney City East was well neutralised by James Chronopoulos high above his head.
It was a very good opening salvo of the contest which turned out to be a thriller for the spectators.
In the 19th minute the home side came close to opening the scoring.
A swinging ball from the right by Lee Jones was partially knocked away by the Bonnyrigg defence, but only as far as Hussein Akil on the far side who, with a powerful drive, ended up hitting the side netting.
It was a very close call indeed for the home side who had done most of the attacking until this point in the game.
In the 27th minute Bonnyrigg had their first real chance of the game when Aaron Peterson found himself alone in front of goal, but the home side’s goalkeeper Anthony Costa made a fine block with his legs.
In the 33rd minute of play from a corner, referee Kurt Ams awarded a penalty to Bonnyrigg White Eagles for a holding type foul by Deklan Gilmartin on Robbie Younis.
As always Younis stepped up to the mark and with aplomb sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to open the scoring.
Hakoah levelled the scores shortly afterwards.
A free kick from the left by Mundell was beautifully flicked in by Kevin Lopes in 36th minute thanks to a wonderful glancing header that ended up placing the ball in the bottom corner of the net.
It was little more than Hakoah deserved and the home fans in the tiny grandstand celebrated in fine voice.
However, the White Eagles clawed back their lead only two minutes later.
A seemingly innocuous cross from the right was met by a Michael Robinson header and, as it took a deflection in flight, it somehow still managed to make its way inside the post for a goal.
The game was now completely wide open thanks to these three goals in the space of five minutes.
In the second half in the 59th minute an absolute wonder goal by Deklan Gilmartin from distance was struck so sweetly that it never looked like missing.
It will surely make the highlights reel for one of the goals of the season such was the brilliance of the effort.
He duly celebrated by running to the perimeter fence to be met by the rapturous home supporters.
In the 70th minute a good attempt by Younis from just inside the box forced goalkeeper Costa into a diving save to turn the ball away for a corner and, a few minutes later, it was Younis again.
However, this time from a free kick he swung the ball around the ball and just wide of the intended target.
In the 78th minute some delightful combination work led to Peterson finding an unmarked Yuta Kokado, who had just entered the field of play as a substitute, and he placed the ball neatly into the back of the net to give the lead back to Bonnyrigg.
In the 82nd minute a long ball from Akil found Jones on the far side and his volley was only a fraction wide of the mark.
However, it was Bonnyrigg that extended their lead in the 87th minute when a lobbed ball forward reached Bo-hyun Chun who slotted home for the White Eagles. It was to be their fourth and final goal of the game.
After the game a very humble but pleased Ray Miller of Bonnyrigg White Eagles offered the following assessment of the encounter.
“The result is all that matters for us players at the moment,” he said.
“The game was a fight because they [Hakoah] are a decent team. They knocked the ball around well and worked hard, so it was an absolute battle out there.
“It was important to get this win because if we didn’t start picking up points it could have been too late for our season. However, when the going gets tough we at Bonnyrigg usually stand up, so it’s a good sign.”
Mark Robertson, coach of Hakoah, even though he was philosophical about the loss, wished that his own team could pick up more points at home.
“When you concede goals in general, you always then have to score more goals than the opposition,” he said.
“I thought that we were a little bit better in the second half, but for the opportunities that we did create, we really needed to score more to be honest.
“I would like more consistency at home because you try to get a home venue where it’s like a fortress and make it hard for teams to beat you, but then we go away and do well at Spartans, at Parramatta and at Sutherland.
However, we have only won one game here [Hensley Athletic Field] and that was against Blacktown City. We need consistency and we need to win more at home.”
Match Stats
Hakoah Sydney City East 2 (Lopes 36’, Gilmartin 59’)
Bonnyrigg Whitye Eagles 4 (Younis pen. 33’, Robinson 38’, Kokado 78’, Chun 87’)
Saturday 14th May 2016
Hensley Athletic Field, Pagewood
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant Referees: Joon Park & Janush Adabjou
Fourth Official: Anthony Mansour
Hakoah Sydney City East: 1. COSTA Anthony, 3. BLUMBERG Dylan, 4. WALKER Bradley, 7. AKIL Hussein (19. CUTRI Domenic 84’), 8. ORGAD Paul (18. D’MELLO Aaron 81’), 10. GILMARTIN Deklan, 14. JONES Lee, 16. ANDRICOPOULOS Costa (40. BLUMBERG Ryan 58’), 17. MUNDELL Jordan, 23. DE JONG Andre, 31. LOPES Kevin.
Substitutes not used: 20. McKENZIE Matthew
Yellow Cards: Gilmartin 33’, Walker 50’, R. Blumberg 61’, D. Blumberg 73’
Red Cards: Nil
Bonnyrigg White Eagles: 1. CHRONOPOULOS James, 3. VRANKOVIC David, 4. ROBINSON Michael, 5. JENNER Adam (2. MANSUETO Alexander 78’), 6. ZONJIC Nikola (10. Yuta Kokado 81’), 9. YOUNIS Robbie, 15. MILLER Ray, 16. GALLAWAY Samuel, 17. GIL Mun-Soo, 19. PETERSEN Aaron, 21. CHUN Bo-hyun (13. McKENZIE James 93’)
Substitutes not used: 20. SAVICIC Stevan, 37. KADRIC Asmir
Yellow Cards: Miller 76’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Robbie Younis (BWE)
2. – Ray Miller (BWE)
1 – Deklan Gilmartin (HSC)
-by Joe Russo, PlayStation®National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 Reporter, at Hensley Athletic Field, Pagewood