St George City grab derby spoils over Sutherland Sharks
St George City took home all the derby spoils thanks to a 2-0 victory against the Sutherland Sharks at a rain sodden Seymour Shaw Park on Saturday evening.
An early headed goal from Presley Ortiz and a late Kosta Petratos penalty all but sealed a valuable victory for Mirko Jurilj’s men.
The Sharks asserted their passing style early on as they tried to invite the visitors out of their formation, but St George City held out early as Pedro Ferrari had the first opportunity of the match with a shot outside the box that was well saved by Marko Bulic.
It was St George that struck first in the 11th minute via Ortiz.
The talented attacker cleverly latched on to a set-piece corner with his head to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Chris Lindsay came close to equalising for the Sharks from a free-kick that saw Matthew Keremelevski cautioned, with a curling left-footer beyond the three-man wall in the 23rd minute that brushed the side netting as the hosts signalled its intentions.
The Sharks continued to pile on the pressure and Mitch Stamatellis almost levelled with his head following a neat cross from Lindsay but St George keeper Nicholas Burke did well to keep the ball out with a sharp block.
Kosta Petratos then tried to catch Bulic napping with a shot-cum-cross, again well held in the conditions, and the score remained in favour of the visitors before Sutherland mounted sustained pressure at the other end without finding the net.
The persistent pressure paid off for St George City as they were awarded a penalty in the 40th minute via a handball which Kosta Petratos cooly despatched and made it 2-0 to the visitors.
A two-nil lead at the break flattered the Reds somewhat but they just about shaded overall play and deserved to hit the sheds in front having taken two opportunities afforded to them.
Following the break, Burke thankfully grasped the ball at the second attempt with Jesse Photi lurking at the back stick from a Lindsay cross as Sutherland attempted to halve the deficit early on.
St George City, relishing their first season in the top flight, bullied their way into the match in their trademark fashion with its effectiveness there for all to see.
A stubbornly difficult side to break down especially when in the lead, and deceptively fast on the counter, they certainly looked the more likely when exploiting the space left at the back by Sutherland as the rain teemed down at Seymour Shaw.
The weather certainly played its part on the night making conditions difficult to play the one-touch style of football Sutherland are known to play but equally so for City.
The hosts had a few decent half-chances but were thwarted by the desperate defending of City, bodies flying all about the area in all directions to get something behind the ball and should have been down by three when Kosta Petratos side-footed an effort wide of the post – the offside flag saving the striker’s blushes.
It proved too tough an obstacle for the Sutherland Sharks to overcome leaving visiting coach Mirko Jurilj to state afterwards.
“I am very happy with the result tonight,” he said.
“We are grinding out results and that’s what you need to do in this league and with so many new players, it’s pleasing to see that set-pieces we’ve worked on are paying off.
“I felt we were desperate at the back when we needed to be after conceding 10 in our first three games, so a clean sheet is also pleasing and we’re starting to gel as a team.
“That said, we’re now 7 games unbeaten but we still have two more rounds in this half of the season before another 15 after that and anything can happen.
“It’s a truism in football, we’ll take the points tonight and just take the next game as it comes.”
Damir Prodanovic cut a frustrated if not dejected coach for the Sharks and added.
“I felt we controlled the game tonight, we had the greater possession but we didn’t work their keeper enough,” he said.
“We didn’t mark up at the set piece, which came from a throw-in we shouldn’t have given away which led to the corner and from there they scored.
“We had chances, they had chances but we didn’t do enough up top and that’s been something all season we’ve been working on, but it won’t change the result tonight, so we have to move on to the next match.
“We didn’t deal with them in one-on-ones at times and I felt we’ve lost the match tonight rather than having been beaten,” he concluded.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 0
St. George City 2 (Presley Ortiz 11’, Kosta Petratos 40’pen)
Seymour Shaw Park, Miranda
Saturday 29th April 2023
Referee: Nathan Shakespear
Assistants: Aaron Bloch and Matthew Harris
Fourth Official: Jackson Tippett
Sutherland Sharks: 1. Marko Bulic, 2 Takahide Umebachi, 4. Mitch Stamatellis, 5. Jesse Photi (25. Oliver Randazzo 79’), 6. Brodie Clarkson, 7. Connor Rose (32. Levi Sciuriaga 46’) (3. Jordan Roberts 70’), 8. Alexander Brown, 11. Fumoto Kamada, 14. Chris Lindsay, 21. Luke Sauer, 91. Jonty Busch
Subs not used: 19. Evan Ball, 22. Jacob Cremen-Cowan, 43. Ikko Ehode Arimoto
Yellow Cards: Takahide Umebachi 46’
Red Cards:
St. George City: 1. Nicholas Burke, 2. Pedro Ferrari, 3. Daniel Alessi, 6. Tarik Ercan, 8. Dominic Cox, 11. Kosta Petratos (7. Nathan Roberts 88’), 14. Dean Pelekanos, 23. Franco Maya, 30. Presley Ortiz (9. Marley Peterson 76’), 70. Maki Petratos (10. Paolo Mitry 81’), 99. Matthew Keremelevski
Subs not used: 4. Brendan Hooper, 12. Jack Kenny, 20. Aiden Mostofi
Yellow Cards: Matthew Keremelevski 22’, Tarik Ercan 29’
Red Cards:
Player Ratings
3 – Kosta Petratos (SGC)
2 – Presley Ortiz (SGC)
1 – Franco Maya (SGC)
By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock
