St George City cruise past Wanderers
St George City FA have earned a strong victory over Western Sydney Wanderers, prevailing 5-0 in a complete performance at Penshurst Park.
St George opened the match strongly, firing multiple shots at goal within the first minute as they searched for an early opener.
In the fifth minute, they capitalised on their early dominance and found their goal.
Jesse Photi picked up a long ball in behind from Caio De Godoy and took a positive touch forwards, placing him in a one on one against Tristan Vidackovic.
Photi made no mistake, calmly opening his body up and passing the ball past the young goalkeeper to give his side the lead.
In the 13th minute, St George netted once again, giving them the perfect opening to this battle for the top six at Penshurst Park.
A clever long pass off a goalkick from Jack Kenny found Jason Romero in behind, who battled with Ricky Fransen before the Wanderers won possession.
However, they couldn’t hold onto the ball for long, as a loose pass found Paolo Mitry a few metres outside the box.
The attacking midfielder took a touch before slicing a pin-point volley towards goal, which found the bottom right corner in beautiful fashion, doubling the lead for the home side.
The Wanderers threatened for the first time in the 17th minute, with Jack Kenny getting down to prevent a low shot across goal from Meliwethu Nkomo as Western Sydney looked for a way back into the match.
However, in the 22nd minute St George found their third to continue a cohesive first-half attacking display.
A sharp, indirect switch to the left-flank found Fumoto Kamada, who beat his man before firing a dangerous, low cross.
His accurate ball found the foot of Kosta Petratos, who made no mistake in poking the ball home to add to his sides lead.
In the 44th minute, St George threatened once more with a powerful strike from Mitry almost finding the target, as the home side continued to dominate the first 45.
While St George didn’t demonstrate the same dominance of the first half, they remained comfortable, limiting chance creation from the Wanderers while looking calm and sharp in possession.
Western Sydney threatened 14 minutes into the second half as they looked to claw a goal back, but a curling right-footed effort from Meliwethu Nkomo just strayed off-target.
In the 74th minute, St George found a fourth with a clever move.
A switch to the right flank from Jason Romero found the feet of Cameron Fong, who promptly found the underlapping run of Kosta Petratos.
Petratos cut the ball back well, finding Nathan Roberts in the middle, who intelligently flicked the ball home – an aesthetically pleasing end to a highly attractive move.
St George made it five in the 86th minute with another well-worked move.
A quick one-two between Kamada and Roberts released the former in behind, who drove inside the box, reaching the byline.
Kamada then squared the ball across goal, finding the free Petratos, who tapped the ball home to earn his second of the game.
This brought an end to a strong performance from St George, who have now entered the top-six, albeit with Wollongong able to displace them with a victory in their fixture tomorrow afternoon.
“Overall it was a good performance, we were still sloppy at times – towards the back end of the first half and the start of the second half – but scoring five goals is always great” said St George coach Mirko Jurilj.
“We haven’t scored too many goals this year, or as many as we would’ve liked.
“They’re obviously not the same team that we played in Round 25 where they gave us a touch up, but they’re good young players so they’ll keep developing, and from our end three points is important.”
Match Stats
St George City FA 5 (Photi 5’, Mitry 13’, Petratos 22’, 86’, Roberts 74’)
Western Sydney Wanderers FC 0
Saturday 20 July, 2024
Penshurst Park
Referee: Ben Abraham
Assistant Referees: Amirhossein Hosnani and Liam Smith
Fourth Official: Matt Staples
St George City FA: 1. Jack Kenny, 2. Cameron Fong, 3. Caio De Godoy, 5. Fumoto Kamada (38. Kai Kamikura 86’), 6. Tarik Ercan (C), 8. Dominic Cox, 10. Jason Romero (32. Mitchy Jomaa 86’), 11. Kosta Petratos, 14. Paolo Mitry (28. Noah Ovens 70’), 19. Jesse Photi (7. Nathan Roberts 70’), 33. Louis Khoury (25. Brodie Clarkson 70’)
Substitutes Not Used: 21. Ryan Reid
Yellow Cards: Ercan 32’
Red Cards: None
Western Sydney Wanderers FC: 20. Tristan Vidackovic, 11. Meliwethu Nkomo (12. Lachlan Tilt 85’), 16. Roman Culina, 18. Awan Lual (14. Luka Knezevic 56’), 19. Dimo Dimo (47. Edmun Haddad 69’), 23. Marcus Fernandez, 28. Luke Nieuwenhof (C), 35. Kaan Nizam, 37. Ricky Fransen, 45. Rushonn Tafunai (2. Lachlan Henderson 56’), 99. Ryan Devine
Substitutes Not Used: 1. Lucas Sinnott, 24. Antony Barbic
Yellow Cards: Lual 30’, Henderson 57’
Red Cards: None
Player ratings:
3 – Kosta Petratos (SG)
2 – Jason Romero (SG)
1 – Fumoto Kamada (SG)
By Jack George (@JackGeorge0004)