Home comforts as Blacktown City beat Manly
Blacktown City have boosted their 2024 Premiership campaign massively after they toppled Manly United 2-0 at Landen Stadium on Wednesday night in what was a truly classy performance from the hosts.
Sublime strikes courtesy of Jak O’Brien and Grant Lynch delivered Blacktown their sixth straight home triumph, whilst also being undefeated in five straight games against the visitors.
Blacktown City started their clash against Manly United like a house on fire as they threatened them from the get-go.
Jak O’Brien began in the 2nd minute as he went on a scintillating run in the opposition’s half causing immediate danger. Danny Choi performed similarly just two-minutes later as he put in a great dash leaving Manly’s defence in an already perilous position.
Manly clawed their way back however and were a tad unlucky not to score in the 9th minute as Peter Kekeris placed in a beautifully lobbed ball that bounced off the head of Jacob Maniti through to Blake Bamgbose who couldn’t quite convert.
The pressure was then heaped on Manly in the 21st minute as Joey Gibbs placed in a scrumptious ball to Jak O’Brien who ran past Kieren Paull before he slotted the ball easily past Levi Kaye to open the scoring.
Following that it took just five-minutes for Blacktown to have their second of the game as Grant Lynch used his killer first touch to manoeuvre past Zac Sfiligoi and sail the ball past Levi Kaye into the back of the net in what was an extremely well-worked strike.
Bamgbose forced a fine save out of Tristan Prendergast soon after as the Blacktown Goalkeeper dashed off his line and punched the powerful shot away to safety.
Just before the break, Kaye made a magnificent double save as he contorted his body and hands to stop two powerful attempts preventing a sure-fire hosts goal.
The second half began in testing fashion with both teams exchanging solid cracks against one another.
Manly failed to capitalise in the 58th-minute as with Lynch and Prendergast to beat, Connor Rose allowed himself to be caught and the ball was accordingly kicked to safety by Lynch.
Manly continued their push and in the 65th-minute they were again presented with a fantastic chance only for Prendergast to beat pacey substitute Ben Koop to the ball at the final second.
Kekeris fired away from long range with Manly’s next passage of play only for his shot to land well wide, with two opportunities gone begging for the visitors.
Again, in the 74th minute Koop ran up to Prendergrast who beat him much earlier to the punch in the race for the ball. Whilst Joseph Fox the following sequence blazed his shot over the bar despite Prendergast’s outstretched arm.
With the game reaching its conclusion Blacktown were content to let Manly throw plenty at them and strike back when able to.
That nearly came to fruition five-minutes from fulltime only for Joey Gibbs to be pegged back for offside. The game ending with Blacktown as well-deserved victors.
Match Stats
Blacktown City 2 (Jak O’Brien 21’, Grant Lynch 26’)
Manly United 0
Wednesday 12 June 2024
Landen Stadium, Seven Hills
Referee: Jake Rose
Assistant Referees: Sean Lacy and Lara Hogan
Fourth Official: Daniel Cornofsky
Blacktown City: 1.Tristan Prendergast, (3.Jayden Trenkoski 65’), 5.Grant Lynch, 7.Travis Major, 8.Jak O’Brien, 10.Mario Shabow, 11.Danny Choi, 12.Tyren Burnie (14.Mitchell Mallia 65’), 16.Ben Berry, (17.Martin Fernandez 76’), 18.Nicholas O’Brien, 22.Jacob Maniti, 23.Joey Gibbs
Unused subs: 19.Julian Rodriguez, 20.Cayden Henderson
Yellow cards: (Ben Berry 5’)
Red cards: Nil
Manly United: 1.Levi Kaye, 2.Kieren Paull, 3.Zac Sfiligoi, 4.Jesse Piriz, 6.Saxon Hillyer, 7.Peter Kekeris, (8.Joseph Fox 62’), (9.Benjamin Koop 62’), 11.Connor Rose, (14.Steffan Visscher 76’), 19.Alen Aganovic, 22. Zac Sfiligoi, 29.William Faulder, (39.Stefano Rossello 45’), 45.Bilal Belkadi
Unused subs: 28.Lachlan Bishop, 31.Jay Coates
Yellow cards: (Zac Sfiligoi 59’)
Red cards: Nil
Player Ratings:
3:Jak O’Brien (BC)
2:Grant Lynch (BC)
1:Levi Kaye (MU)
-By Tobias Canning
