Sydney United 58 have powered to their first win of the NPL NSW thrashing Mt Druitt Town Rangers 5-0 at Popondetta Park on Sunday.
It was a coming out party of sorts for United 58 as they flexed their attacking muscle against an out of sorts Mt Druitt side who slumped to their second loss in as many weeks.
Nearly everything went Sydney United’s way in the first half.
A comical own goal from Rangers defender Travis Oughtred opened the scoring before Thomas Manos made a brilliant penalty save to stop Mt Druitt claiming an equaliser.
From then the floodgates opened with goals to Matt Sim, Devante Clut and a brace to Patrick Antelmi wrapped up a very one sided performance and Zeljko Kalac’s first win in the NPL NSW as United head coach.
Mt Druitt started the game with intent as John Roberts’ direct running proved troublesome for United 58 defender Christian Gonzalez
Mateo Poljak blasted narrowly wide from 25-yards out 10 minutes in as the home side had the best of the early chances.
However, it would be United 58 who would take the lead only moments later as Oughtred headed powerfully past his own keeper to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.
Parity should have been restored when United skipper Adrian Vlastelica brought down Roberts inside the area to gift the Rangers a penalty.
Manos was not to be beaten as he pulled off a spectacular save to deny Toufic Alameddine from the spot.
Saliadarre pulled off a magnificent stop to keep the score at 1-0 in the 38th minute after Matthew Sim was played in following a midfield slip.
Sim was in space and bearing down on goal but the Rangers’ shot stopper made himself big to block the shot.
The Mt Druitt custodian was called into action again minutes later to deny substitute Joshua McDonald. This time Saliadarre got down low to his left to palm the ball around the post.
He was powerless to deny Sim a second time as the industrious midfielder slammed a left-footed strike beyond the hapless gloveman to extend United 58’s lead just before the break.
Patrick Antelmi had enough time to hit the bar in first half stoppage time as the visitors went into the interval in control of the contest.
Mt Druitt coach Aidan Desmond called in a number of changes after the restart as his side chased the match.
Blake Thompson effected a goal-line clearance, for once Saliadarre unable to reach the ball, but with increasing United pressure the opportunity to break out quickly was diminishing.
The task became too great when substitute Devante Clut’s thumping shot added United’s third with a quarter of an hour to play before Antelmi found space and added a fourth to put the victory beyond any doubt.
Antelmi doubled his tally for the day with a minute remaining to add the icing to the cake.
It was a tough scoreline for Mt Druitt who battled hard before succumbing to the slicker passing and movement of their counterparts.
“if you don’t take your opportunities you don’t win games,” a disappointed Rangers coach Aidan Desmond said afterwards.
“When it’s compounded by silly mistakes teams are going to punish you and United did that to us today.
“We’ve only got ourselves to blame and the positions we put ourselves in and obviously it’s a result we have to put behind us but a performance we cannot accept.”
Kalac praised his side’s eye for goal in the win.
“Today’s performance was no different to last week except we scored goals,” he said.
“If we play football like this we’ll win more than we lose.
“It was a fantastic performance with some great goals and all around good team performance and I cannot ask more than that.
“The style of attacking football we’re playing involves a lot of hard work on the pitch, tracking back and even the penalty save was down to moments in games. Tommy’s (Manos) job is to protect the goal and he did just that.
“It was a complete team performance and I’m pleased we’re starting to understand the ethos of how we want to play the game.”
Match Stats
Mount Druitt Town Rangers 0
Sydney United 58 5 (Oughtred 12’og, Sim 42’, Clut 76’, Antelmi 78’, 89’)
Popondetta Park, Mt Druitt
Sunday, 8th March 2020
Referee: Tim Danaskos
Asst. Refs: Scott Edeling & Bradley Wright
4th Official: Sam Quinn
Mt Druitt Town Rangers: 1.Carlos SALIADARRE, 3.Travis OUGHTRED, 4.Solimon-Johhn MONAHAN-VAUKA, 6.Blake THOMPSON, 7.Luke CIFFORD, 8.Mateo POLJAK (2.Jake MAMMONE 79’), 9.Alex BOYADJIN, 10.John ROBERTS, 11.Toufic ALAMEDDINE, 13.Lord DARKO, 21.Mirjan PAVLOVIC (17.Cooper COSKERIE 69’)
Substitutes not used: 12.Thomas GITTANY, 20.Robert FANULLA, 77.Daniel FOGARTY
Yellow Cards: Roberts 61’, Oughtred 68’, Alameddine 70’, Thompson 74’
Red Cards: Nil
Sydney United 58: 21.Thomas MANOS, 2.Christian GONZALEZ, 3.Jordan ROBERTS, 4.Adrian VLASTELICA, 8.Matthew SIM, 9.Patrick ANTELMI, 11.Yianni PERKATIS, 12.Liam ROSE, 15.Tariq MAIA (10.Devante CLUT 62’), 17.Matthew BILIC (99.Joshua McDONALD 31’), 22.Yianni FRAGOGIANNIS (18.Glen TRIFIRO 66’)
Substitutes not used: 1.Danijel NIZIC, 7.Michael RUHS
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Antelmi (SU58)
2 – Manos (SU58)
1 – Roberts (MDTR)
By National Premier Leagues NSW reporter Micky Brock
