NWS Spirit FC snatch win at the death in comeback of the season
It’s been lauded as one of the most entertaining comebacks in the National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition history, NWS Spirit FC amazingly recorded a 5-4 victory over the Wollongong Wolves at Christie Park in one of the matches of the season played on Saturday.
To quote the great Martin Tyler, “You’ll never see anything quite like it again”.
Trailing by two goals as late as the 90th minute, the hosts remarkably scored three goals via Matthew Cahill, Michael Konestabo and Richard Darko giving David Perkovic’s troops an incredible victory.
This, after Darko and Luiz Lobo scored earlier in the piece.
It was pure heartbreak for the Wolves as the South Coast side thought they’d won the match when Takumi Ofuma slotted his side’s fourth goal, with Lachlan Scott, Jake Trew and Chris McStay scoring earlier – But it wasn’t to be as the NWS Spirit’s never say die attitude lifted them to a memorable win.
Coming out with intent, NWS Spirit were the first put the foot on the accelerator with both Cahill and Corey Kavanagh having early chances.
Thanks to their fast start, the host were rewarded ten minutes into the match.
Ollie Wiggin cut inside from the right before slipping a perfect ball into Lobo. Lobo then sliced his shot into the left side netting to give the hosts the lead.
Slowly the Wolves played their way back into the match and they started to create chances in the final quarter of the half. Lachlan Scott, returning from injury, had his chance blocked after a poor defensive turnover.
The Wolves didn’t wait long for an equaliser though as Walter Scott was released down the left, his wicked ball found Trew who clinically headed home in the 33rd minute continuing his strong 2023 form.
Suddenly the momentum had shifted completely, and the Wolves made it a one-two punch a few minutes later. Josh Macdonald worked the ball centrally from the left to McStay who rifled home a bullet into the top left corner of the net.
After having a quiet period in front of goal, NWS Spirit had one final chance of the half. Louis Bozanic hit the side netting after Lobo slipped him inside on 41 minutes.
It was to be the Wolves who added a third goal however after the hour mark.
Marcus Beattie played a key role in the build-up play as Macdonald had his initial shot saved before the ball spun away from keeper Marques with Lachlan Scott on the spot who finished with aplomb.
The drama was far from finished with NWS Spirit FC cutting the lead back to one with the games next big chance, Darko the scorer after Michael Konestabo found him to his right and it was 3-2.
The Wolves thought they had put the game to bed in the 83rd minute as Japanese import Takumi Ofuma smashed home a curling effort and coach David Carney thought then, this was done and dusted at 4-2.
NWS Spirit FC had other ideas and threw everything at the Wolves as Cahill scored from close range thanks to a Kota Odakura cross in the 90th minute and it was game on.
Three minutes into stoppage time and the equaliser came much to the delight of the Spirit FC faithful.
Wolves keeper Tomas Butkovic made the decision to come out of his box following a long ball pumped forward – a decision the shotstopper would regret as he clattered into a Spirit player with the ball falling to Konestabo outside the box, the experienced midfielder finishing it home calmy and it was 4-4.
At this stage everyone at Christie Park thought that both teams would settle for a point.
Boy were they wrong as Perkovic’s men had other ideas.
Odakura snatched the ball off McStay just before the half-way line with the ball falling to Darko.
The crafty attacker then took the ball in his stride from the half-way line and spotted Butkovic off his goals.
He couldn’t could he?
He sure did as Darko fired a long rang shot that evaded Butkovic and pandemonium erupted at Christie Park with NWS Spirit FC winning 5-4.
Ecstatic scenes followed soon after the final whistle with NWS Spirit FC coach David Perkovic amazed and stunned at what had unfolded.
“What a crazy game,” Perkovic stated.
“It was quite an epic encounter.
“We started well, but credit to Wollongong for coming back into the game with some neat goals.
“Credit to our team for believing however – the guys who came off the bench made a huge impact on the match especially Richie (Darko) who scored a couple of top-class goals, the last one especially.
“We’ve struggled to score recently so scoring five today will give the boys confidence as we look forward to next week’s match.”
Match Stats
NWS Spirit FC 5 (Lobo 9’, Darko 72’ 95’, Cahill 90’, Konestabo 93’)
Wollongong Wolves FC 4 (Trew 32’, McStay 36’, Scott 61’, Ofuka 83’)
Saturday 1 April, 2023
Christie Park, Macquarie Park
Referee: Danny Horstead
Assistant Referees: Matt Staples and Patrick Teleki
Fourth Official: Mujtaba Ebrahimi
NWS Spirit FC: 1. Christopher Marques, 3. Musashi Kokubo, 4. Kota Odakura, 5. Jordan Gomez (2. Blake Ilitch 61’), 6. Corey Kavanagh, 10. Louis Bozanic (C) (7. Richard Darko 61’), 11. Ollie Wiggin, 13. Simon Nicholas, 17. Matthew Cahill, 21. Luiz Lobo (9. Mitchell Davidson 86’), 23. Michael Konestabo.
Substitutes Not Used:18. Federico Gagliano, 19. Dominic Johns, 31. Joel Wade
Yellow Cards: Lobo 47’, Gomez 53’, Konestabo 82’, Wiggin 82’
Red Cards: Nil
Wollongong Wolves FC: 13. Tomas Butkovic (GK), 15. Ethan Beaven, 3. Harrison Buensel, 5. Banri Kanaizumi (C), 23. Walter Scott, 8. Samuel Riak, 88. Christopher McStay, 25. Alex Masciovecchio (7. Marcus Beattie 59’), 99. Joshua Macdonald (9. Takumi Ofuka 75’), 14. Jake Trew, 24. Lachlan Scott (6. Senna Stevenson 88’)
Substitutes Not Used: 1. Nenad Vekic (GK), 11. Nav Darjani, 29. Ben Gaison
Yellow Cards: Scott 22’, W Scott 36’, Kanaizumi 53’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3 – Richard Darko (NWS)
2 – Christopher McStay (WW)
1 – Michael Konestabo (NWS)
By Justin Smith (@smiththejustin).
