Blacktown City shine in torrential rain at Lilys

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A quick-fire salvo from Travis Major and Joey Gibbs was enough for Blacktown City to outlast a spirited Sutherland Sharks 3-1 in PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s competition action at Lilys Football Centre.
Torrential rain wasn’t able to hold back the pair of former Hyundai A-League forwards who struck within four minutes of each other to establish a commanding 2-0 lead inside fifteen minutes.
Although Sutherland mustered a response through Chris Mcstay in the second half, Blacktown attacker Patrick Antelmi came off the bench to add a sensational third on the cusp of full-time.
It was a harsh defeat in torrid conditions for the visitors with Antelmi’s strike at the death adding considerable gloss to the scoreline for Blacktown, who struggled to push beyond second gear throughout.
Sutherland saw plenty of the ball and offered moments of genuine promise in open play as they chased what resembled a near-unassailable deficit, but were unable to find a way through a Blacktown City rear-guard who had to be at their most vigilant to deny Carlos Villazon’s outfit a route back into the encounter.
Villazon will rue a poor start to the match that left Sutherland trailing 2-0 after fifteen minutes.
Mitch Mallia’s persistence down the left flank was rewarded when Travis Major nodded home the opening goal at the back post, before Joey Gibbs took advantage off a wayward clearance from Sutherland’s Mitchell Farmer to convert Riku Sasaki’s clipped pass on the turn.
The visitors began to assert themselves on the contest after Gibbs’ fourth of the season and offered several glimpses of real danger throughout the first half with Blacktown shotstopper Nenad Vekic tipping away a pair of threatening corner deliveries from Steven Hayes whilst captain Zac Cairncross’ last-ditch intervention on the line prevented Sutherland’s Jordan Figon from pulling a goal back.
Kajiyama Tomihiro enjoyed the matches best chance before the half-time break when he was denied by the legs of Vekic and the Japanese winger saw his snapshot crash into the upright in the opening moments of the second half.
With Sutherland in the ascendancy Patrick Antelmi was brought on as a substitute to wrestle momentum back for the hosts but the forward’s first involvement was to give away a free-kick on the edge of the box, where Sutherland equalized through Chris Mcstay’s glancing header
The match opened up with the visitors chasing parity and it took a big save from Nathan Denham to deny Mitch Mallia one on one to keep hopes of an equalizer alive.
They were extinguished in one final show of quality from the competition heavyweights, with Antelmi sealing the three points with an exquisite curler from distance.
Antelmi’s late stunner came as huge relief for Blacktown coach Mark Crittenden who acknowledged his side’s underperformance.
“It wasn’t a polished performance from us today but it’s never easy in terrible conditions,” he said
“It’s important for us to rest now in the coming days and prepare for Wednesday.”
While the Blacktown custodian turned his gaze towards Wednesday’s crunch-match with Bonnyrigg White Eagles in the Waratah Cup quarter-finals, Sutherland coach Carlos Villazon lamented his side’s failure to take anything from the game.
“We’re disappointed of course, it’s the same old story for us,”
“We will take a lot of encouragement from the performance but we need to take our chances.”
Match Stats
Blacktown City 3 (Major 7’, Gibbs 11’, Antelmi 89’)
Sutherland Sharks 1 (Mcstay 62’)
Sunday 5th June 2016
Lilys Football Centre, Seven Hills
Blacktown City: 19. Zachary Cairncross, 10. Connor Evans, 9. Joey Gibbs, 6. Matthew Lewis, 8. Sasa Macura, 7. Travis Major, 14. Mitchell Mallia, 21. Riku Sasaki (16. Patrick Antelmi 60’), 4. Roberto Speranza, 1. Nenad Vekic, 3. Giorgio Spreanza
Substitutes Not Used:  17. Lewis Beumie, 12. Jonathan Grozdanovski, 20. Tristan Prendergast
Yellow Cards: 21. Riku Sasaki 41’
Red Cards: N/A
Sutherland Sharks: 10. Joshua Da Silva (17. Andrew James 77’), 1. Nathan Denham, 37. Claudio Fabiano, 20. Mitchell Farmer, 9. Jordan Figon, 19. Callum Fitzpatrick, 6. Matthew Gordon, 23. Steven Hayes (12. Lukas Stergiou 72’), 35. Kajiyama Tomihiro, 4. Stephen Kayes (16. Laureano Gomez Castro 80’), 8. Chris Mcstay
Substitutes Not Used: 21. Nikolas Loe, 7. Jack Press,
Yellow Cards: 37. Claudio Fabiano 76’
Red Cards: N/A
*Player Ratings will be hidden till the end of the season where Football NSW will announce the 2016 PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s Team of the Year
-By PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Jacob Windon