Mt Druitt Town Rangers felt the wrath of a wounded St George City outfit with Mirko Jurilj’s men storming home to a comfortable 3-0 win at Popondetta Park on Saturday night.
St George City put behind them its shock Australia Cup departure at the hands of Eastern Suburbs Football Association side Randwick City as they proved too strong for their opponents.
It was a disappointing night for the Rangers who were right up for this contest against one of the newly promoted sides. The hosts had a few chances through Tarek Elrich and Jackson Bandiera but couldn’t find the back of the net.
St George City controlled the contest from the opening whistle. Kosta Petratos opened the scoring before strikes from Daniel Alessi and Aiden Mostofi confirmed the vital three points for the visitors on their travels.
Most of the early running went with the visitors.
St George City held the ball and worked it around with a few half chances coming from it.
The first actual chance fell to Presley Ortiz from a delightful cross. He craned his neck to get to the ball but it went over the bar.
The Rangers responded with a header of their own. Defender Nikola Djordjevic found space then nodded his header over.
The match saw its first goal come in the 24th minute as Kosta Petratos whipped home the opener following a hat-trick of shots.
Just after the half hour mark, Elrich tried to get the hosts going. They worked the angles well before the captain had a low shot which was gathered by Nicholas Burke.
Coming out of the break, St George City felt just fine. They had the first shot of the half through their goal scorer Kosta Petratos.
It was the other Petratos brother, Maki, who almost double their lead. He stood over a free-kick and curled it towards the top corner before Mt Druitt custodian Dylan Niski turned it over.
St George City doubled their lead in the 52nd minute. Maki Petratos saw his shot blocked which saw the ball fall to Daniel Alessi whose effort was deflected into the net for 2-0.
The hosts then went close to scoring through the boot of Bandiera. The attacker unfurled an effort which crashed against the apex of the bar then the follow up strike was deemed offside.
It was then game, set and match as St George City substitute Aiden Mostofi confirmed the three points in the 79th minute. A diagonal ball left him one-on-one before he rounded the keeper to slot home for 3-0.
Post-match a somber Mt Druitt Town Rangers assistant coach Andy Montgomery reflected on the loss.
“We weren’t up to our best despite training well all week trying to build on our performance from last week, but we weren’t good enough tonight.
“We knew they were going to stretch our lines and go front to back but didn’t deal with it well enough.
“We didn’t deserve anything really.” said Montgomery.
While St George City coach Mirko Jurilj stated his satisfaction following his team’s dominance at Mt Druitt.
“It was a great team performance and dominant display from us tonight.
“Defensively we had a great shape and pressed well so it was deserved, and we could have scored more.
“Mt Druitt put us under pressure from set pieces which tested us.
“We’ve had three draws before this match but to only lose twice through eleven rounds is nice for us but there is still a long way to go.”
Match Stats
Saturday 15 April 2023
Popondetta Park, Emerton
Referee: Karl Davies
Assistant Referees: Matthew Harris & Alexis Johnson
Fourth Official: Daniel Drewitt
Mt Druitt Town Rangers 0
St George City 3 (Kosta Petratos ‘24, Alessi ‘52, Mostofi ‘79)
Mt Druitt Town Rangers: 2. Solomon-Johnn Monahan-Vaiika (15. Anthony Gallo ‘83), 3. Nikola Djordjevic, 4. Cooper Coskerie, 7. Nikola Skotaric (27. Stefan Nikolic ‘76), 10. Kotara Katsuta, 11. Jackson Bandiera, 20. Dylan Niski, 21. Tarek Elrich, 22. Rhett Desilva (43. Abdelelah Faisal ‘63), 23. Daniel Dias (6. Jared Macerola ‘83), 44. Anthony Frangie
Unused subs: 1. Robert Fanella, 5. Ivan Sunjic, 9. James Demetriou
Yellow cards: Frangie ‘49, Dias ‘61
Red cards: Frangie ‘94
St George City: 1. Nicholas Burke, 2. Pedro Ferrari, 3. Daniel Alessi, 6. Tarik Ercan (24. Alex Kyriacou ‘88), 7. Nathan Roberts (20. Aiden Mostofi ‘76), 8. Dominic Cox, 11. Kosta Petratos (10. Paolo Mitry ‘83), 23. Franco Maya, 30. Presley Ortiz (9. Marley Peterson ‘83), 70. Maki Petratos (14. Dean Pelekanos ‘83), 99. Matthew Keremelevski
Unused subs: 12. Jack Kenny
Yellow cards: nil
Red cards: nil
Player Ratings:
3: Maki Petratos (STG)
2: Kosta Petratos (STG)
1: Dominic Cox (STG)
By Justin Davies (@JustDavies90)
