High Flying APIA Leichhardt were dealt a mental blow to its Premiership hopes following a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Northbridge Bulls at Lambert Park on Saturday night.
With points seen as Gold coming into the business end of the NPL NSW Men’s season it was a loss Danial Cummins and his troops weren’t expecting thanks to goals from Bulls stars Nathan Dimou and a late Stephan De Robillard strike.
It didn’t look as though the visitors were set to take points after the first 25 minutes which APIA dominated with Diego Celis seeing his header in the opening minute flash across the face of goal as the hosts looked to apply the early pressure right from the start after good work down the left from Walter Scott and Michael Kouta.
It was all the home side in the early exchanges with Northbridge struggling to break out of their half let alone threaten Ivan Necevski in the APIA net.
Jason Romero should have done better in the 11th minute but dragged his shot wide of the upright as APIA continued their early domination of the match.
Jesper Webber, cutting in from the right, finally produced an effort on goal and a save from Necevski when squirming his way into the area and firing in a low left-footed shot the big ‘keeper did well to push aside at full length.
Played at a frantic pace, it wasn’t until the 23rd minute when Celis brought a save from Levi Kaye at the other end despite the space being found in behind.
It was from a free-kick two minutes later, Dimou climbed highest to plant a header beyond Necevski to open the scoring for the Bulls.
It put a spring in the step of the visitors and APIA, so dominant to this point, to chase the game.
Webber nearly converted a second from a fiercely whipped in De Robillard cross but the ball went behind for a goal-kick to spare APIA’s blushes after some sloppy defending on their left.
Scott fired narrowly over from the edge of the area in response but Northbridge had grown into the game showing plenty of maturity and fight, particularly at the back.
Themba Muata-Marlow headed over from an Adrian Ucchino corner with a few minutes left to play in the half and Jack Armson had an effort blocked by Dimou but it wasn’t to be, despite their early momentum, the hosts went into the break behind 1-0.
Second half started and APIA drew the first chance.
Armson laid the ball off to Scott whose first-time shot arrowed goalward only for Kaye to acrobatically turn over the bar.
Scott and Celis had several attempts in rapid succession and once more Northbridge stood tall to thwart the danger on the hour mark.
Webber broke out from an APIA corner and slipped in Mason Wells who returned the pass but Necevski was sharply off his line to save at the feet of the pacey Bulls striker.
The reaction was immediate as Sean Symons replaced Celis but whether the desired impact would be forthcoming was yet to be seen.
It wasn’t to be for the hosts though as they were dealt a second goal and it was game, set and match as De Robillard fired home with a delightful curling shot into the net to settle the tie.
It left a pleased Bulls’ coach, Mile Sterjovski’ to comment afterwards.
“It has been a tough season for us but the boys always turn up and put in.
“I’ve told them to keep believing as we’ve had games like this where we’ve got nothing from them and we needed to weather the storm early on.
“They (APIA) dominated for the first 20-25’ minutes and were quite aggressive but we got back into the game.
“Sometimes you don’t dominate in games but get the result and tonight I felt we fought our way back into the match and obviously we are very happy with the result.
“These young guys are playing for professional contracts and I said to them at half-time they needed to show how hungry they are and how much they wanted to win and sometimes it goes your way, sometimes not, but you have to keep on trying.
“It’s a result that has been overdue but very happy with the points tonight.”
Danial Cummins was reflective when saying.
“We’ve got to start converting the chances in the first half of the game and we didn’t and then stopped playing,” he said.
“We took poor options when the players probably thought it was just going to happen for us and that’s very disappointing when we had everything to play for.
“We could have joined Blacktown City at the top with a game in hand and now we’ll have to look at winning all our remaining fixtures to have a chance of the Premiership.
“Northbridge played well tonight and deserved the three points but again, some of our thinking tonight was not up to scratch.
“It’s between the ears at times and that is something we’ll have to be working on between games.”
Match Stats
APIA Leichhardt Tigers 0
Northbridge Bulls 2 (Nathan Dimou 25’, Stephan De Robillard 82’)
Lambert Park, Leichhardt
Saturday 9th July 2022
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistants: Lance Greenshields and Joon Park
Fourth Official: Isabella Mossin
APIA Leichhardt Tigers: 1. Ivan Necevski, 4. Joshua Symons, 8. Diego Celis (16. Sean Symons 74’), 9. Jason Romero, 14. Jack Armson, 15. Thema Muata-Marlow, 18. Adrian Ucchino, 19. Fabian Monge (7. Matthew Cahill 65’), 21. Michael Kouta, 23. Walter Scott (10. Franco Parisi 65’), 38. Yianni Nicolaou
Subs not used: 3. Paul Galimi, 6. Simon Nicholas, 22. Luke Turnbull
Yellow Cards: Ivan Necevski 80’
Red Cards: Nil
Northbridge Bulls: 20. Levi Kaye, 2. Jack McLoughlin, 3. Nathan Dimou, 4. Anthony Sparacino, 5. Ante Krilic, 7. Mason Wells, 9. Diego Bonilla (17. Luka Sterjovski 90+2’), 11. Stephan De Robillard (21. Matthew O’Donoghue 87’), 12. Marcus Sparacino, 15. Jesper Webber (14. Rhys Youlley 80’), 16. Oliver Jones
Subs not used: 8. Flynn Madden, 18. Charlie Ragg, 40. Griffin Barry
Yellow Cards: Marcus Sparacino 29’, Ante Krilic 64’
Red Cards: Nil
By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock