Goals galore as Spirit sting City
NWS Spirit FC claimed the honours with a action-packed 4-3 victory over St George City on a very wet night at picturesque Penshurst Park in a highly entertaining Round 21 encounter of the National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW.
After a day of deluge the boutique venue witnessed an incredible game of football – arguably one of the best of the year for the neutral observer – where the visitors held on in the end for a narrow win, after leading 3-0 at halftime and St George City played a fair proportion of the second half with only ten players after a send to Matthew Keremelevski.
NWS Spirit FC opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Richard Darko slotted home. St George City captain Tarik Ercan failed to properly deal with the ball before he was dispossessed by Ollie Wiggin, who then crossed it over to Darko and all he had to do was find the back of the net.
In the 16th minute St George City had their first real chance of the evening when a thunderbolt of a free-kick by Jason Romero was just touched over the crossbar by goalkeeper Christopher Marques.
The visitors then doubled their lead midway through the first half and it was really against the run of play. Another error from St George City, this time in midfield, gifted Wiggin the ball and he delightfully found his teammate Michael Konestabo down the left channel, who with a clinical finish found the bottom corner of the net.
A minute later St George City came close to getting one back. After some aerial ping-pong, Paolo Mitry had a great shot on target but Simon Nicholas cleared off the line almost by luck rather than anything else with his ‘keeper well and truly beaten.
On the half-hour mark there was more pressure from the home side. Cameron Fong scooted elegantly down the left side of the field before finding Mitry in the middle who once again fired on target, but goalkeeper Marques made a nice save to neutralise the danger.
In the 39th minute NWS Spirit came very close to scoring their third. Wiggin pounced on a loose ball and found his teammate Darko but ‘keeper Jack Kenny pulled off a miraculous save from point-blank range.
However, in the 43rd minute NWS Spirit did indeed make it three. A Wiggin shot was blocked but only as far as Zachary Cianci who drilled it home much to the frustration of the home side’s coaching staff, so much so that for the second half the Technical Director of the club Aytek Genc joined the bench.
After the break the rain stopped and the first real opportunity of the half belonged to St George City and it arrived on the hour mark. A powerful shot by Dominic Cox was beautifully turned away for a corner by Marques.
In the 63rd minute NWS Spirit replied with a long ball forward that found Konestabo who had a shot on the turn that was well saved by Jack Kenny down low to his left.
St George City finally struck gold in the 65th minute through a goal from Louis Khoury after he found himself with the ball and unmarked in range of the target.
Two minutes later though they found themselves down to ten players when Matthew Keremelevski received his second yellow card, this time for a nasty foul on Jacob Chidiac, and experienced referee Michael Weiner was left with no option but to brandish him with a red – it was to be the defender’s second red of the 2024 season.
St George City showed resilience and spirit and got another goal back in the 74th minute when Nathan Roberts, who had only just entered the arena as a substitute, crossed delightfully from the left to the back post where another substitute Jesse Photi simply headed in.
NWS Spirit made it four in the 82nd minute after a very nervous and shaky second stanza of play that allowed St George City back into the game. A Jared Lum free kick into the middle reached Kyle Shaw who jumped higher than all and headed into the net for the decisive goal.
St George City made it three in the 88th minute to set up a real grandstand finish. After some scrambling from a corner, a Tarik Ercan shot was saved by Marques but only as far as Photi who found himself hitting the target for the second time.
There was some very late drama in the 96th minute when St George City almost made it four all. From a corner, there was a lot of panic in defence and a shot by Ercan was eventually cleared off the line by the NWS defence in what proved for them to be a real sigh of relief.
After the game NWS Spirit coach David Perkovic was very proud of his team.
“Obviously it was pretty much a perfect first half to go in 3-0 up at the break,” he said.
“St George City had no nothing to lose in that second half and they gave it everything, and credit to them for getting back into the game.
“This is a ground that is difficult to take advantage of the ten men because it is a small ground where everything is very compact. Obviously I am happy with the win away from home and the positive results for us of late continue.
“I was particularly pleased with our counter-attacking in the first half where we wanted to manage the game especially on a compact field, so I thought we got our first three goals from those moments.”
Over in St George City’s dressing room assistant coach James Spanoudakis, filling in for a sick Mirko Jurilj, was satisfied on the whole with proceedings.
“It was a difficult game but the boys put in a lot of effort, especially in the second half even with ten players,” he said. “We didn’t get a point, maybe due to some errors in the first half and credit to them too for taking advantage of them.
“The first half errors came back to haunt us in the end, but the second half response was very good and we can try to take some positives out of it and learn from the experience.
“I was really happy with the character shown in the second half and all the boys stepped up a gear and looked for the win, and that’s definitely something to be proud of even though we were 3-0 down.”
Match Stats
St GEORGE CITY: 3 (Khoury 65’, Photi 74’ & 88’)
NWS SPIRIT FC: 4 (Darko 11’, Konestabo 22, Cianci 43’, Shaw 82’)
Saturday 22nd June 2024
Penshurst Park
Referee: Michael Weiner
Assistant Referees: Alessandro Llana, Reece Edwards
Fourth Official: Jackson Mackie
St GEORGE CITY: 1. Jack Kenny, 2. Cameron Fong, 4. Solomon Monahan-Vaiika, 6. Tarik Ercan, 8. Dominic Cox (19. Jesse Photi 73’), 10. Jason Romero, 11. Kosta Petratos, 14. Paolo Mitry, 25. Brodie Clarkson, 33. Louis Khoury (7. Nathan Roberts 73’), 99. Matthew Keremelevski.
Substitutes not used: 21. Ryan Reid, 28. Noah Ovens, 36. Noah Albert, 43. Peter Dendrinos.
Yellow Cards: Keremelevski 15’, Kenny 52’
Red Cards: Keremelevski 67’
NWS SPIRIT FC: 1. Christopher Marques, 3. Kyle Shaw, 4. Jarred McKinley, 7. Richard Darko (29. Kyle Bennett 93’), 10. Michael Konestabo, 11. Olllie Wiggin, 13. Simon Nicholas, 16. Ante Bakmaz, 17. Jacob Chidiac (12. Titus Macharia 83’), 18. Zachary Cianci (19. Jesse Michel 77’), 20. Jared Lum.
Substitutes not used: 31. Joel Wade, 32. James Dyer, 34. Noah Peacock.
Yellow Cards: Lum 15’, Chidiac 38’, Bakmaz 52’, Wiggin 86’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Ollie Wiggin (NWS)
2 – Richard Darko (NWS)
1 – Jesse Photi (StG)
By National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Joe Russo
