Defiant Blacktown see off gallant St George FC outfit
Blacktown City asserted its dominance and continued its course to challenge for this year’s silverware following a 3-0 victory over St George FC at Landen Stadium on Sunday.
This was off the back of the club’s 5-1 win in midweek in Round 7 of the Australia Cup, a victory that saw Mark Crittenden’s men book a spot in this year’s coveted Round of 32.
Travis Major set up the first goal with a delicate chip into the box after good work down the right flank for Danny Choi to steal in at the back stick to head home the opener with the only goal of the first 45-minutes.
Jak O’Brien, recently celebrating his 100th game for the club against Hill United, netted the second, when being in the right place at the right time to finish off another well worked City move.
The goal of the game came two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the match when the ball was played into substitute Joey Gibbs who laid off a perfectly timed pass for O’Brien to lash home and it was lights out.
Plenty of good work but limited opportunities hit the opening ten minutes with Tyren Burnie jinking his way down the right to cross for City and Peter Grozos firing over the bar for the visitors the pick of the action until it all changed when Major picked up a loose ball on the right and centred for Choi to steal in at the back stick and head home in the 15th minute.
St George had certainly come to play and posed many questions of the City defence without being able to unlock it and find a strike of their own but for long periods during the half made plenty of the running.
Harry Jones almost mis-hit an effort that Tristan Prendergast did well to turn around the post before O’Brien attempted an audacious lob at the other end that, unfortunately for City, lacked power allowing for Andrew Di Blasio to gather comfortably.
Martin Fernandez pulled a brilliant save from Di Blasio with the ball eventually falling to O’Brien who promptly lifted it over the woodwork from the edge of the area.
Unfortunately for St George, the save caused the ‘keeper an injury that led to substitute Daniel Axford replacing him between the sticks in the 35th minute and was immediately called into the action when clearing with a brave header outside his area from the on-rushing O’Brien.
Grozos broke down the left and headed toward the area before powering a shot straight at Prendergast in a delightful counter-attack but ultimately St George headed to the half-time break a solitary goal down with a further 45 minutes in which to restore parity or garner an invaluable three points.
Blacktown had other ideas and started the second-half on the front foot and could have doubled their advantage but a poor Choi first-touch allowed the St George defence to nip in and clear the danger.
Major was continually finding space down the right in timing his runs to perfection to beat the offside trap and thought he had found the net only to be pinged, somewhat ironically, offside in a twist of fortunes as City continued to make forward forays.
Burnie came close again in the 66th minute from fully 30-yards out with a shot that slipped narrowly wide of the upright but O’Brien was on hand to add the finishing touch to another move two minutes later to extend the home sides lead. It was harsh on St George but a deserved outcome for a determined and well organised home side.
Substitute Joey Gibbs brought another classic save out of Axford in the 81st minute, a quite spectacular stop down to his right side at full stretch worthy of making the end of season highlights reel and again from O’Brien near the culminating whistle.
The final action of the match saw O’Brien grab his second of the match again from some wonderful inter-passing play deep into stoppage time leaving Coach, Mark Crittenden, to comment afterwards.
“The good thing today was St George came to have a go and the result doesn’t reflect it was a tougher game than the scoreline might suggest.
“Their first 45’ minutes was good, they moved the ball well and moved themselves, and us, about but we managed to his half-time one-nil up from a good half of football.
“I don’t think we produced a clearly penetrating ball, particularly in the early stages of the second-half, and apart from the opening goal but we got ourselves into some nice positions but a lack of execution in the final third probably hurt us a little more than I would have hoped but again credit to St George who forced us into some errors. They worked hard, defended well and perhaps not one of our better performances but you’ll always take a 3-nil win,” he concluded.
While St George FC coach Jane Talcevski was left to lament the following about the loss.
“In the first-half we competed well and were probably the better of the two sides out there today,” he said.
“We controlled the game well, attacked well, defended well and reduced Blacktown from producing anything too threatening, apart from the goal of course.
“Maybe in the second-half a little fatigue set in and there were some tired legs in addition to playing on a very difficult field but Blacktown had to work hard to get the result against us.
“We have a great Goalkeeping Coach who prepares our ‘keepers for every game, physically and mentally, so it wasn’t a surprise Daniel (Axford) came in and produced a good performance and made a couple of terrific saves.
“It’s early days yet but Andrew (Di Blasio) sustained a leg injury in making the earlier stop but we won’t know if it’s a strain or a tear until the Doctor’s report so it could be a week out, several weeks out or even back in goal next weekend but it’s a waiting game and we’ll have to wait and see.”
Match Stats
Blacktown City 3 (Danny Choi 15’, Jak O’Brien 68’, 90+2)
St George FC 0
Landen Stadium, Seven Hills
Sunday 2nd June 2024
Referee: Craig Fisher
Assistants: Aaron Bloch and Arinath Gobinath
Fourth Official: Charbel Geha
Rockdale Ilinden: 1. Tristan Prendergast, 5. Grant Lynch, 7. Travis Major (14. Mitchell Mallia 68’), 8. Jak O’Brien, 10. Mario Shabow, 11. Danny Choi (42. Lachlan Henderson 78’), 12. Tyren Burnie, 16. Benjamin Berry, 17. Martin Fernandez (23. Joey Gibbs 46’), 18. Nicholas O’Brien, 22. Jacob Maniti, 23. Joey Gibbs
Subs not used: 20. Cayden Henderson, 29. Zachary Butler, 42. Lachlan Henderson, 53. Yusei Miki
Yellow Cards: Jak O’Brien 68’
Red Cards:
St George FC: 1. Andrew Di Blasio (20. Daniel Axford 35’), 3. Troy Danaskos, 5. Nicholas Kalogerou, 6. Pat O’Shea, 8. Connor Quilligan (7. Jessie Spang 78’), 9. Peter Grozos, 10. Harry Jones (22. Aeden O’Shea 78’), 11. Anthony Morabito (2 Caio De Godoy 57’), 17. Thomas Brown (30. Justin Poon 78’), 23. Evan Souris, 27. Jayden Seeto
Subs not used: 14. Alex Malfara
Yellow Cards: Pat O’Shea 45+2, Jayden Seeto 57’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Jak O’Brien (BC)
2 – Troy Danaskos (SGFC)
1 – Danny Choi (BC)
By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock