Ten-man City defeat derby rivals St George FC

In what was a classic backs against the wall performance, St George City defeated arch-rivals St George FC 2-0 albeit playing the entire second half with ten-men in a great team performance at the Ilinden Sports Centre on Saturday.

It was a game that promised and delivered fireworks as all good derbies do with talking points and super strikes that for the neutral didn’t disappoint.

In the reverse match it was a stoppage time equaliser for FC’s Aeden O’Shea that decided the outcome in a 1-1 draw at Penshurst Park and once again it was City who took the lead with a thundering shot via Matthew Keremelevski in just the 4th minute putting the visitors ahead.

Paolo Mitry slipped through the home defence with a delightful nut-meg and centred that needed the merest of glances to find the net and double City’s lead but with no-one able to make the connection it was a let-off for a battling St George FC who were pinned back in the opening stages.

City were adopting the high press in never allowing FC time on the ball.

Daniel Axford parried a shot from Louis Khoury in the 24th minute as City were proving the dominant side however the question remained as to whether they could maintain the frantic pace they were setting for the full ninety minutes or whether FC could find that telling pass over the top or down the flanks.

It was a full-bloodied encounter with no love lost between the sides in a no-nonsense contest some would describe as ‘hard but fair’ but it wouldn’t be too long before the cautions began with a player booked for each in rapid succession, such was the prevailing undercurrent with not just valuable points at stake.

As the half wore on it was FC who found their legs, having patiently soaked up the early pressure from City, and fashioned a couple of half-chances they couldn’t put away or were played too close to Jack Kenny between the sticks but at half-time it was the visitors who went to the break ahead.

Jesse Spang replaced Harry Jones for FC at the restart and was immediately into the action setting up Troy Danaskos out on the left who fired wide of the woodwork but it didn’t take long for City to receive a straight red when Presley Ortiz committed a seemingly ugly foul on the half-way line reducing the visitors to 10-men just two minutes into the half.

City were forced into a rear-guard action but found themselves two ahead when club skipper Tarik Ercan was fastest to react to net a rebound in the 62nd minute from another parried effort. It would prove the straw that broke the back of a battling FC side and a strike they wouldn’t be able to come back from.

St George FC threw everything at City in the final half-hour but couldn’t find a way through a packed City back line, often reverting to a 5-3-1 formation, particularly when Aeden O’Shea, on for Peter Grozos, brought a fingertip save out of Kenny with twenty minutes remaining, however, City still remained dangerous on the break but as the rain began to tumble down so did the hopes of the home side with every passing minute.

Axford saved from Dominic Cox late on which would have been the icing on the cake for City but the visitors would gladly have accepted a 2-0 win before the game as they strive to keep their hopes of Final’s football alive leaving a delighted City Coach Mirko Jurilj to comment post-match.

“We had some really good chances in the opening half that we didn’t take to make the match more comfortable for ourselves,” he said.

“It’s been the story of our season really and they (FC) gained a bit of momentum toward the end of the half without really threatening us when a few of our boys started to tire.

“We were pretty aggressive with our press and we wanted to play that way but obviously events early in the second-half changed that and we knew they would try to get into the pockets behind us but we were happy to let them have the ball on the outer edges where we knew they couldn’t hurt us.

“They are a very good passing side but we didn’t allow them to penetrate and we had a number of good chances, apart from the goal, to go into half-time in a better position but at 1-0 the game was still finely balanced and the red card forced us to change our game plan but we are comfortable playing with a back four or five so we were protecting space mainly but got a second goal to make it more comfortable for ourselves and we could then afford to pack the defence and look to hit on the counter.

“A hard win but a precious three points on a tough night,” he concluded.

While St George FC Jane Talcevski was bitterly disappointed at the result.

“They came out strong and score an absolute cracker in the first few minutes and we’re already one-goal down and then not being to control the ball, not find our rhythm and giving the ball away too often in crucial areas was disappointing,” he commented.

“In the moments where we did threaten the delivery was too close to the ‘keeper and we were ineffective at finishing off the chances we created.

“You think when the opposition is down a man we would pick up the pace but they stacked their defence and were able to increase their lead and we couldn’t respond to that.

“The action for that goal started further up the field with a loose pass being intercepted and then the foul leading to the free-kick, which was saved well, but we didn’t react quickly enough to the second phase ball and we’re further behind.

“Whether it’s a bit of fatigue in the side, we are playing two games a week at present, is irrelevant as we have to be better in those moments.

“As I said, we couldn’t find our game tonight but credit to them as they defended well, with desperation at times, and they are a quality side with some top players and we did our best but we have to be better, sharper and more clinical in certain areas.”

Match Stats

St George FC 0

St George City FC 2 (Matthew Keremelvski 4’, Tarik Ercan 62’)

Ilinden Sports Centre, Rockdale

Saturday 15th June 2024

Referee: Sam Kelly

Assistants: Liam Smith and Cameron Wright

Fourth Official: Thomas Dale

St George FC: 20. Daniel Axford, 2 Caio De Godoy, 3. Troy Danaskos, 5. Nicholas Kalogerou, 6. Pat O’Shea, 8. Connor Quilligan, 9. Peter Grozos (22. Aeden O’Shea 66’), 10. Harry Jones (7. Jessie Spang 46’), 18. Mark Rodic, 23. Evan Souris (14. Alex Malfara 80’), 27. Jayden Seeto (17. Thomas Brown 84’)

Subs not used: 11. Anthony Morabito, 21. Samuel Smith

Yellow Cards: Peter Grozos 30’, Pat O’Shea 56’, Caio De Godoy 60’

Red Cards: Nil

St George City FC: 1. Jack Kenny, 2. Cameron Fong, 4. Solomon-Johnn Monahan-Vaiika (28. Noah Ovens 80’), 6. Tarik Ercan, 8. Dominic Cox, 11. Kosta Petratos, 14. Paolo Mitry (19. Jesse Photi 89’), 25. Brodie Clarkson, 30. Presley Ortiz, 33. Louis Khoury (10. Jason Romero 58’) , 99. Matthew Keremelvski

Subs not used: 7. Nathan Roberts, 21.  Ryan Reid, 23. Andrew Vlahadamis

Yellow Cards: Paolo Mitry 32’

Red Cards: Presley Ortiz 48’

Player Ratings

3 – Matthew Keremelevski (SGCityFC)

2 – Tarik Ercan (SGCityFC)

1 – Pat O’Shea (SGFC)

By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock