Blacktown City and Bonnyrigg White Eagles savoured the taste of victory after the first week of the PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s Finals series.
It was a tough night at the office for Rockdale City Suns who had their season cut short by a fired up Bonnyrigg White Eagles while Manly United was unable to contain Blacktown’s prolific attack.
There was no shortage of excitement with 11 goals scored across both of the weekend’s games.
With Sydney United 58 to make their PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s Finals Series debut next week the stage is set for a thrilling run to the Grand Final at Leichhardt Oval on September 10.
Rockdale City Suns 2 – Bonnyrigg White Eagles 4 at Lily’s Football Stadium
Bonnyrigg White Eagles has prevailed in their do or die PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s encounter against Rockdale City outgunning the Suns 4-2 in a frenetic elimination final at Lilys Football Stadium.
It was a fitting curtain-raiser for the 2016 finals series as the White Eagles capitalized on a canny second half performance to break Rockdale hearts. Unusually tame throughout the course of the normal campaign, Brian Brown’s traditional competition heavyweights nailed their championship credentials to the wall in convincing style with three goals in the final twenty five minutes.
Asmir Kadric marked another impressive first team cameo with a sensational opening goal inside ten minutes before Rockdale replied with a smashing goal of their own, skipper Daniel Petkovski hammering home the scraps from a poorly defended Bonnyrigg corner to restore parity.
Alexander Mansueto proved the unlikely hero for the White Eagles after restoring the lead with a sweeping finish midway through the second half, and Bonnyrigg all but sealed passage into next week’s preliminary final against either Manly United or Blacktown City when Robbie Younis slammed home a third with five minutes remaining.
A match crammed with drama continued to boil over into the dying minutes, with Rockdale restoring a glimmer of hope through Alec Urosevski’s neat volley – but it was almost instantly quelled by a gorgeous curling strike from Martin Lo, who turned in a subtly brilliant ninety minutes on a mad evening in Seven Hills.
Blacktown City 4 – Manly United 1 at Lily’s Football Stadium
A ruthless attacking display from Blacktown City has confirmed a long awaited rematch with Sydney United 58 after a 4-1 demolition of Manly United at Lily’s Football Stadium on Sunday.
Goals to Danny Choi, Travis Major, Patrick Antelmi and Joey Gibbs was enough to end Manly United’s 11 game PlayStation®4 NPL NSW Men’s unbeaten streak and lock in a Semi-finals berth next week.
Manly had no answers for the Mark Crittenden coached Blacktown side with Adam Parkhouse’s second half goal a mere consolation.
A goal in the first three minutes from Choi set the tone for the match with Blacktown never looking back.
Manly’s finals hopes are not all over despite the loss with Paul Dee’s men to take on Bonnyrigg White Eagles at Cromer Park in a do or die semi-final clash.
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