NWS Spirit FC’s unbeaten run continues with victory over St George City
NWS Spirit FC have continued its flawless start to the 2025 National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW season with a clinical 2-0 victory over St George City at Christie Park on Saturday.
Christoper Marques made several key stops to go along with Zane Ahluwalia’s 12th minute opener and Michael Konestabo’s second-half effort to gift coach David Perkovic their fourth win in four matches.
The hosts hit off like a house on fire as Konestabo placed a through ball in-between two St George City Defenders to Yu Okobo, only for the star forward to lose possession to Jack Kenny.
The hosts again came close in the 4th minute as Jack Kenny forced Okobo’s shot to go wide of the far post, as the St George City Goalkeeper made himself massive with his one-handed save.
When the 12th minute hit, the inevitable happened as Perkovic’s men scored a very well-worked goal as a thunderbolt header from Zane Ahluwalia found the bottom corner to open the scoring.
It wasn’t all easy going however as James Percevski made two massive headed clearances as the visitors went in search of that equalising goal.
In the 31st minute the unthinkable happened. Jack Kenny came out of his goals near the halfway line to make a pass, only for him to mishit it completely and the ensuing connection from Yu Okobo went just wide of the goals.
Towards the end of the half, both Dominic Cox and Goncalo Agrelos tried to loop in their shots for the visitors but to no avail with Christoper Marques safely on hand both times to thwart any potential danger.
St George began the second half like they ended the first, lacking a clinical final touch, as the connection between Caio De Godoy and Fumoto Kamada resulted in the latter shooting straight into the arms of Marques.
Konestabo reaped the rewards of in the 55th minute as he efficiently took one touch of the ball inside the box, before firing home past the outstretched leg of Kenny to make the scoreline 2-0.
St George tried to work their way back into the game when Brodie Clarkson fired away from long range in the 76th minute. Then it was Jesse Photi who took one touch too many as Marques ran off his line and used his body to stop his attempt.
Konestabo six-minutes later scorched the ball from outside the box as he dragged his shot just wide of the post much to the dismay of the crowd.
Spirit’s number one Christopher Marques gave a very insightful view post-match.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of hard work in training and have been switched on.
“We’re also analysing our opponents quite well and try to work with what’s in front of us.
“Whilst St George are tactically a good team, so it was difficult. We used the opening 5-10 minutes to help us with our game plan and went from there.
“Maybe we could have scored more today.. We have great quality up top and need to do more to support them.”
Match Stats
NWS Spirit FC 2 (Zane Ahluwalia 12’, Michael Konestabo 55’)
St George City 0
Saturday 01 March 2025
Christie Park
Referee: Eric Saba
Assistant Referees: Rory McFarlene and Glen Stubbings
Fourth Official: Mujtaba Ebrahimi
NWS Spirit FC: 1.Christoper Marques, 2.Anthony Younis, (3.Kyah Williams 87’), 5.Jordan Perez, 7.Frankie Ljucovic, 8.Grant Cornwell, 9.Yu Okobo, 10.Michael Konestabo, 13.Simon Nicholas, (14.Marco Arambasic 81’), 15.James Percevski, (17.Jacob Chidiac 63’), 19.Zane Ahluwalia, 22.Takumi Ofuka
Unused subs: 12.Robert Fanella, 16.Charlie Broomhead, 23.Lincoln Gilmour
Yellow cards: Jacob Chidiac 75’
Red cards: None
St George City FA: 1.Jack Kenny, 3.Caio De Godoy, 4.Solomon-Johnn Monahan-Vaiika, (7.Nathan Roberts 79’), 8.Dominic Cox, 9.Marc McNulty, (10.Paolo Mitry 59’), 11.Fumoto Kamada, 15.Nathan Grimaldi, 18.Goncalo Agrelos, (19.Jesse Photi 59’), 23.Dakota Askew, 25.Brodie Clarkson, 33.Louis Khoury
Unused subs: 2.Matthew Wahby, 13.Cameron Kemp, 17.Noah Ovens
Yellow cards: Marc McNulty 23’, Dakota Askew 58’
Red cards: None
Player Ratings:
3: Christoper Marques (NWS)
2: Jack Kenny (STG)
1: Yu Okobo (NWS)
-By Tobias Canning
