Home comforts as Blacktown City down Stallions
Blacktown City recorded a huge result defeating the Marconi Stallions 3-0 to consolidate their place in the higher echelons of the table at Landen Stadium on Sunday.
A first half goal to Joey Gibbs were followed by two in the second stanza of play, one each to former Stallions players Martin Fernandez and Mitchell Mallia to give Blacktown City the convincing win.
However, it must be noted that two second half send offs – James Temelkovski and Nathan Millgate – really did put Marconi out of the contest.
The opening chance of the game arrived in the 6th minute when Domenic Costanzo manoeuvred his way into the box before forcing his close range shot onto the side netting.
Blacktown City’s replied in the 11th minute which saw Fernandez give a nice ball to Mallia who, against his former club, saw his shot deflected and then smothered by goalkeeper James Hilton.
It was however another former Marconi player in Joey Gibbs that broke the deadlock in the 14th minute with a bit of individual brilliance for Blacktown City. From just outside the area, Gibbs flicked the ball over a defender’s head, recuperated it before ‘keeper Hilton could get there and then snuck it home to give his side the lead.
Mario Shabow tried his luck in the 23rd minute with a long range shot that sailed over the crossbar as Blacktown were pinning Marconi down in their own half at this stage of the encounter.
Blacktown were at it again shortly afterwards when Tyren Burnie fed the ball to Fernandez who, from very close range, flicked it onto the crossbar.
The first note of the second stanza of play was Temelkovski’s send off in the 47th minute. It was a play that referee Sam Kelly, in consultation with experienced assistant referee Lance Greenshields, deemed dangerous enough on Shabow to merit a straight red card and Marconi were thus forced to play virtually the entire second half a player down.
Blacktown City almost as expected then doubled their lead in the 53rd minute when a Mallia cross from the by-line reached Fernandez who headed home with ease.
Marconi came close in the 57th minute when an astute diagonal shot from Mario Jesic from virtually nothing narrowly missed the intended target as the captain looked to bring his side back into the contest.
On the hour mark Shabow went galloping down the left channel before firing his long-range rocket across the face of goal, but Marconi were not to be outdone as George Daniel came very close with his attempt that also sailed across the entire face of goal.
In the 73rd minute Danny Choi cut the ball back for Shabow who drove powerfully just wide of the target before Travis Major volleyed with intent shortly afterwards, but goalkeeper Hilton made a good reflex save.
In the 81st Lachlan Henderson almost made a dream debut for Blacktown City. With his very first touch of the ball after coming on less than a minute earlier he went sprinting from midfield before finding himself one-on-one with the ‘keeper, but in the end he fluffed his lines and chipped it a centimetre or two just wide.
Two minutes later Nathan Millage was sent off for a tackle on the same Henderson and now Marconi were down to nine players as once again referee Kelly judged it meritorious of the red.
Mallia then made it three for the home side in the 87th minute with a clever goal that went straight in off his boot from the right, giving the Marconi custodian no chance of actually preventing it hitting the inside corner of the net.
After the game the coach of Blacktown City Mark Crittenden was very pleased with his side and the win.
“At the moment we have more players in long black pants than in black shorts, given all the injuries we have,” he said.
“It is a busy week with an Australia Cup game on Wednesday and I am really not too sure who is available, but we’ll put eleven out there and then back up again next week against Hills United.
“Today we went out there and stuck to what we wanted to do. We thought that we could have competed against a really good squad and we did.
“At the end of the day we competed and got the result. We have always had a really good battle against Marconi because we are two big clubs and to get a result against them at home is fantastic.”
However, over in the Marconi Stallions shed their coach Peter Tsekenis was clearly disappointed and was left ruing the two send offs against his side.
“When you have two send-offs there is not much I can say,” he commented.
“That makes it four now for us and we are definitely disappointed how everything played out.
“There is not much I really can say beyond that except that the game was then gone for us.”
Match Stats
BLACKTOWN CITY FC: 3 (Gibbs 14’, Fernandez 53’, Mallia 87’)
MARCONI STALLIONS: 0
Sunday 12th May 2024
Landen Stadium, Seven Hills
Referee: Sam Kelly
Assistant Referees: Lance Greenshields, Amirhossein Hosnani
Fourth Official: Charbel Geha
BLAKTOWN CITY FC: 1. Tristan Prendergast, 5. Grant Lynch, 7. Travis Major, 10. Mario Shabow, 11. Danny Choi (42. Lachie Henderson 80’), 12. Tyren Burnie, 14. Mitchell Mallia, 17. Martin Fernandez (9. Reuben Awaritefe 83’), 18. Nicholas O’Brien, 22. Jacob Maniti, 23. Joey Gibbs (33. Sebastian Mileto 88’).
Substitutes not used: 20. Cayden Henderson, 29. Zachary Butler, 53. Yusei Miki
Yellow Cards: Gibbs 15’, O’Brien 38’, Choi 74’
Red Cards: Nil
MARCONI STALLIONS: 1. James Hilton, 2. Nathan Millgate, 3. Cameron Windust (16. Liam Youlley 61’), 4. Anton Mlinaric, 6. Domenic Costanzo (29. Luke Raso 88’), 8. Daniel Bouman (21. Jakov Malbasa 71’), 9. James Temelkovski, 10. Marko Jesic, 11. Hiroaki Aoyama, 18. George Daniel, 23. Brandon Vella.
Substitutes not used: 14. Dylan Susovic, 24. Mackenzie Syran, 39. Luka Knezevic.
Yellow Cards: Daniel 64’, Youlley 67’
Red Cards: Temelkovski 48’, Millgate 83’
Player Ratings
3 – Mario Shabow (BC)
2 – Jacob Maniti (BC)
1 – Mitchell Mallia (BC)
By National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Joe Russo
