Bai Antoniou enjoying life with St George FC

Ahead of St George FC’s exciting fixture against Wollongong Wolves FC, we spoke to new talisman Bai Antoniou about his form, the last few matches and where his side can improve. 

Antoniou made the move from Rockdale Ilinden to St George FC in the offseason, and cited it as ‘refreshing’ above all else.

“I felt like I was at a stage in my career where I needed a change, he said.”

“The opportunity presented itself to come to St George, and I feel like it gave me a new brand of life.”

St George have made a solid start to the season, which Antoniou thinks will only be built on as the side experiences and learns from more time on the field.

“I think we’ve put on six really good performances,” he said, when asked about his and St George FC’s beginning of the campaign.

“I’m happy with the way I’ve started the season with a couple of goals and assists to help us get some vital points.

“I think we’ve just been unlucky in that we’re learning as we go on. We’re quite a young team who are still figuring out how to win games.

“But I think the further we go into the season, the clearer our DNA is becoming and the easier it’s becoming for us to manage the 90 minutes together.”

St George’s last match against APIA was the epitome of that, where they threw away a strong first half by conceding three goals in 10 minutes early into the second stanza, but it also outlined an improvement in the mentality of the team, who impressively came back to take a strong point away from home.

“In the first half, we really controlled the game and took a nice lead into halftime,” said Antoniou.

“But something we’ve got to learn is that a sniff, becuase they got one and it became three really fast.

“However, I do believe that four weeks ago, we would have lost that game 3 or 4-1.

“But we have found our DNA and our character to not put our heads down, to come back as a team by fighting and chipping away.

“Into the future though, I’d like to see us avoid conceding three goals 10 minutes into the second half.”

Meanwhile, St George head into their next clash against Wollongong with some strong performances as of late, and will be striving to disrupt the Wolves’ unbeaten record, with Wollongong drawing four and winning two in their opening six matches.

“We just have to keep playing our own style of football,” Antoniou said when looking ahead to the clash.

“If you look at our last three fixtures, we took points against APIA and Marconi away and beat Sutherland convincingly 3-0 at home.

“We’ve just got to take confidence from our own game and not worry too much about what teams we’re coming up against are doing.

“We believe that if we play to our ability and our best game, we should be able to take points off them and end their unbeaten run.”

A large part of their recent form has been helped by Antoniou’s quality, with the attacking midfielder netting three goals in his last three games – two in their 3-0 win against St George FC and the opener against APIA.

When asked about his strong performances, Antoniou said “I had a really clear, good conversation with ‘Fabs’ (Fabian Miceli), the coach, in preseason.

He moved me into the ‘10’ role and he sort of gave me freedom to play my game.

“We had a really good understanding of how he wanted me to play and what I wanted to bring to the team.

“Ever since then, I’ve just been really confident and backing my own ability, playing freely, and it just seems to be reaping the rewards at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Antoniou has strong ambitions for his team for the 2025 campaign, believing they can push for finals football when asked about his and St George’s goals for the season.

“The club made it clear to me when signing that they wanted to solidify themselves in this competition and be well-respected in this competition,” he said.

“I believe this team should be striving for finals football.

“I think we have it in us, but we just have to learn quickly on managing the 90 minutes and competing the whole way through.

“For myself, it’s just constantly performing well for them.

“Scoring, assisting, just doing my job and working hard to reward them for believing in me and giving me a key role at this club.”