United 58 hang on for hard fought win

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Sydney United 58 defeated the Sutherland Sharks 1-0 in Round 7 of the National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW competition at the Sydney United Sports Centre on Sunday afternoon.

It was a Bailey Rule thunderbolt that separated the two squads in the 15th minute as the Sharks pushed United 58 all the way till the end.

The hosts had the game’s first attack after nine minutes as Aiden Milicevic headed tamely towards goal that Sharks’ ‘keeper Nenad Vekic had no trouble in gathering although he needed to be strong when pushing the ball onto the bar from Milicevic who fired in a curling effort from 20-yards out that, luckily for the visitors, was ruled offside from the rebound.

United 58, having awoken from their initial inertia, hit the post via Matthew Hatch before Rule lashed home a sumptuous volley on the quarter-hour to net the opening goal for the Reds.

With the early flurry from Sutherland all but dissipated, United 58 gained the ascendency and went in search of more.

Shunta Nakamura was next to try his luck after a run down the right but shot well wide of the mark with Patrick Antelmi better placed in the box to receive the ball for an attempt on goal. Only time would tell if this would prove costly. It was the final action before the players took a mid-half water break.

Chris Lindsay fired over from a free-kick when the Sharks broke upfield in an increasingly sporadic attack however, they stuck to their guns and kept plugging away to stem the seemingly constant Red tide.

The heat began to take its toll as the half wore on and the early pace understandably dropped in intensity in the latter stages however it was United 58 who looked the more dangerous going forward. Nakamura almost made it two after the Japanese import spun neatly and fired in from distance that Vekic palmed out for a corner in the 40th minute however the resultant set piece amounted to nought.

Sutherland should have squared the ledger in stoppage time when Jay McGowan pulled the ball back for James Cakovski but he skied his effort over the bar before the half-time whistle sounded and United 58 went to the sheds one goal to the good.

Takehide Umebachi and Kotaro Katsuta replaced Chris Lindsay and Mo Ahmed after the break for Sutherland as Coach Steve Zoric looked to change the point of attack and stem the outlets United 58 were ably exploiting in the opening 45’ minutes.

Indeed, the mood had changed at the interval with two Sharks players cautioned inside eight minutes of the restart, soon to be joined by United 58’s Anthony Tomelic.

A goalmouth scramble, block on the line, the upright struck and a shout for handball in the 56th minute all went against the visitors who have found finding the net difficult this season which didn’t help their cause.

The home side were fighting a rear guard action with the seemingly rejuvenated Sharks taking the game by the scruff of the neck in search of the equaliser and testing the home defence on a regular basis.

The simmering undercurrent surfaced with a spate of additional cautions needing to be handed out and with United 58 holding on to the slenderest of leads it was an unpredictable game going all the way to the wire.

Jordan Roberts, against the club he served well for many seasons, forced Oliver Kalac into a save down to his left but the effort lacked power to make it comfortable for the gloveman before Matthew Moric headed wide from an Umebachi cross. Kalac was brave again to deny McGowan as United 58 clung on.

But cling on they did in a real tale of two halves and the battling Sharks losing out again to a solitary goal leaving Coach, Steve Zoric to state.

“It’s frustrating as we started brightly but somehow some of the players seemed to get lost,” he rued.

“We worked on our rotations but they lost their shape and we then had to reset and after the drinks break we settled in and restructured and continued that in the second-half.

“We were all over them after the break but if we can’t score those goals from the chances we created well, goals win games and we need to start putting them away.

“We get ourselves into great positions but just cannot find the net and we have to and is something we really have to work on hard.

“To lose another game by the odd goal is hard, it’s frustrating but I have confidence that with this group of players we will work on that and fix the issues and then start stringing the wins together and climb the table,” he concluded.

Zeljko Kalac, Sydney United 58’s Coach looked a relieved man at the whistle.

“We were atrocious after the break, we couldn’t retain the ball,” he said.

“We kept turning over the ball with simple, basic mistakes but defensively we did alright and we had the chances to put the game to bed yet our decision making was catastrophic at times.

“Our second-half performance was a real worry but we did enough to perhaps win three games in the opening 45’ minutes.

“It’s nice we kept a clean sheet and were able to hold on to a 1-0 lead instead of going out each week needing to score three or four but that happens in football and it’s nice to see we can hang on for the result.

“That’s a positive we can take out of the game but Sutherland did well and came at us in the second period due mainly to our collective and individual mistakes but we take the three points and move on but we need to learn from this match,” he ended.

Match Stats

Sydney United 58 1 (Bailey Rule 15’)

Sutherland Sharks 0

Sydney United Sports Centre, Edensor Park

Sunday, 24th March 2024

Referee: Craig Fisher

Assistants: Matthew Harris and Ayad Naji

Fourth Official: James Makris

Sydney United 58: 1. Oliver Kalac, 3. Bailey Rule, 4. Adrian Vlastelica, 5. Anthony Tomelic (7. Jordan Ivancic 85’), 8. Shunta Nakamura, 9. Patrick Antelmi (6. Adam Cervas 80’), 10. Carlos De Oliveira (21. Dejan Bakrdanikoski 87’), 11. Matthew Hatch, 14. Liam McGing, 15. Tariq Maia, 19 Aiden Milicevic 13. Alessandro Lacalandra 85’)

Subs not used:  17. Matthew Nikolovski, 52. Ali El-Sabeh

Yellow Cards: Tariq Maia 48’, Anthony Tomelic 56’, Bailey Rule 69’

Red Cards: Nil

Sutherland Sharks: Nenad Vekic, 4. Mitch Stamatellis, 6. Sam Gulisano, 7. James Cakovski, 8. Mo Ahmed (2. Kotoro Katsuta 46’), 9. Maxx Green (3. Jordan Roberts 59’), 10. Mason Fernandez, 11. Jay McGowan, 14. Chris Lindsay (5. Takahide Umebachi 46’), 15. Matthew Moric, 26. Jacob Garner (21. Luke Sauer 79’)

Subs not used: 23. Ethan Beavan, 99. Jacob Cremen-Cowan

Yellow Cards: Maxx Green 41’, Sam Gulisano 51’, Matthew Moric 53’, Mitch Stamatellis 67’

Red Cards:

Player Ratings 

3 – Bailey Rule (SU58)

2 – Aiden Milicevic (SU58)

1 – Shunta Nakamura (SU58)

By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock