Blacktown City powerless as NWS Spirit FC hammer four at Landen
NWS Spirit have made an early statement as new signings Yu Okubo and Takumi Ofuka led a dominant 4-0 victory over Blacktown City at Landen Stadium.
The Spirit were causing problems from the first whistle, with their first chance at goal less than three minutes into the match. Jordan Perez produced another chance five minutes later but was easily palmed off by Blacktown keeper Cayden Henderson.
Blacktown’s Jak O’Brien was in the wars early in the half, getting taken down in the box by Spirit keeper Christopher Marques, but his appeal for a penalty was waved off.
Spirit were consistently building their attacks through the first half and their persistence paid off as new signing Yu Okubo claimed a brilliant long ball to find the back of the net and put his side in front after 13 minutes.
O’Brien was once again taken down in the box but was once again waved off by referee Mujtaba Ebrahimi. O’Brien then produced a brilliant shot in the 28th minute, seeing the Spirit keeper off his line and attempting to lob it into goal but it went just wide.
Henderson was once again tested by the Spirit offence but palmed away a late chance to keep the visitors within one.
Although Blacktown were down, they certainly weren’t out heading into the second half and a good press in the early minutes showed the home side were keen to put up a fight. Their aspirations of levelling the game were made astronomically harder just five minutes after the restart, as veteran Grant Lynch was sent off for a foul on Michael Konestabo and was deemed the last defender. Despite keeper Henderson getting a glove on it, Takumi Ofuka powered the ball past to double the Spirit’s lead.
Konestabo almost sealed the victory in the 77th minute, capitalizing on a Blacktown defensive error, but sent the shot wide.
It was Okubo who put the double-cherry on top of the cake for Spirit with a stunner in the final minutes of regulation and a fortuitous deflection from Jakob Cresnar ensuring a 4-0 scoreline and all three points heading back home.
NWS Spirit FC coach David Perkovic was elated with the result against one of the well known toughest teams in the NPL Men’s NSW competition.
“I don’t think you ever expect to win 4-nil in this competition,” Perkovic said.
“Having said that, we seem to be Blacktown City’s bogey team, I don’t know what it is but we seem to perform well against them.
“(Okubo and Ofuka) are doing very well and we’ve got Mike (Konestabo) who is able to link up with those players at a very, very good level so I think our front three is very good.”
Match Stats
Blacktown City FC 0
NWS Spirit 4 (Yu Okubo 13′, 84’ Takumi Ofuka (pen) 50’, Jakob Cresnar (OG) 86’)
Saturday 15th February 2025
Landen Stadium, Seven Hills
Referee: Mujtaba Ebrahimi
Assistant Referees: Blake Eastwood and Rory MacFarlane
Fourth Official: Jackson Tippett
Blacktown City FC: 1. Cayden Henderson (GK), 4. Lachlan Campbell (19. Sebastian Hayward 65’), 5. Grant Lynch, 6. Adam Berry, 7. Travis Major (Jacob Maniti 75’), 8. Jak O’Brien (10. Maksim Jez 69’), 9. Keanu Moore (Danny Choi 65’), 14. Mitchell Mallia (25. Dimo Dimo 69’), 16. Benjamin Berry, 18. Nicholas O’Brien, 23. Jakob Cresnar
Substitutes Not Used: 20. Zac Bowling
Yellow Cards: Sebastian Hayward 73’
Red Cards: Nil
NWS Spirit FC: 1. Christopher Marques (GK), 4. Bradie Smith, 5. Jordan Perez (8. Grant Cornwell 61’), 6. Corey Kavanagh, 7. Frankie Ljucovic (23. Lincoln Gilmore 85’), 9. Yu Okubo, 10. Michael Konestabo (20. Austin Oates 85’), 13. Simon Nicholas (16. Charlie Broomhead 85’), 15. Jamie Percevski, 19. Zayne Ahluwalia (2. Anthony Younis 69’), 22. Takumi Ofuka
Substitutes Not Used: 12. Robert Finella
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Grant Lynch 49’
Player Ratings
3 – Yu Okubo (NWS)
2 – Takumi Ofuka (NWS)
1 – Jordan Perez (NWS)
-By Katrina May (katrinaa_mayy)
