Manly no match for Magical Marconi
The Marconi Stallions continued its surge for the 2025 National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW Premiership with a resounding 3-0 victory over Manly United at Cromer Park on Friday evening.
The Round 13 match up ultimately proved to be a scintillating performance from the Stallions who had three different goal scorers and once again kept a clean sheet.
The early exchanges between Manly and Marconi witnessed the hosts placed under an extreme amount of pressure. Just five-minutes in, Aaron O’Driscoll flew in to head the ball away from Marko Jesic close to the box as the early signs were evident that Marconi meant business.
A minute later, Matthew O’Donoghue snatched the ball away from Dom Costanzo after the ‘Stallion’ whipped his way through several Manly defenders.
With a couple of close calls, the Stallions made one contact in the 8th minute in what was a stunning goal. Stallions young gun Matej Busek smashed a shot from long-range thanks to a lovely play by Jake Trew that gave Levi Kaye no chance and it was 1-0 to Peter Tsekenis’ troops.
Manly soon woke up and had a couple of chances to equalise as Darcy Burgess went close in the 16th minute with only James Hilton to beat while Rocco Pelle saw his effort palmed away by the Stallions keeper in the 18th minute.
The tenseness only continued on the half-hour mark as Harry Van Der Saag came soaring in over Jesic in his attempt to steal the ball, as the two captains collided.
Eventually the affair boiled over on the stroke of halftime, as with his side preparing to take a freekick, Manly head coach Patrick Zwaanswijk was shown a yellow, then a red card by assistant referee Lucy Hungerford, seemingly for dissent.
It took just three-minutes into the second half for Marconi to double the deficit.
This time it was Jake Trew who found himself on the end of a brilliant through ball from Domenic Costanzo as Trew slotted the ball past Kaye with class and poise.
Matej Busek brushed off several opposition players during a tearing run to the halfway line, before a kick at the ball from O’Driscoll in the 57th minute seemingly thumped off his head and left Busek worse for wear.
In the 65th minute the hosts earned a half-decent opportunity as Burgess curled in a nice ball to Taiga Kawano who couldn’t quite get his header right, as the opportunity ended with a Stallions clearance.
A few moments later, Manly substitute Farah Koko made a trademark burst down the field and appeared to have set up a sure-fire goal, only for rival defender Lachlan Griffiths to clear the lines with a last second backheel clearance.
Marconi then put the cherry on top with a third strike of the evening in the third minute of added time. Franco Maya found himself with room to move and cooly lobbed Kaye to put the icing on the cake for the reigning NPL Men’s NSW Champions.
Stallions Head Coach Peter Tsekenis praised his side’s performance taking home three points in what is always a tricky fixture in Sydney’s Northern Beaches on a Friday evening.
“For us it’s important to get three points every week and coming to Cromer Park isn’t easy. However, the Football we played I couldn’t be happier with, and we scored three beautiful goals.
“One of those goals came in the 8th minute and although we didn’t plan on it, it was from an advantage we took full opportunity of.
“We were solid the whole game and to be honest we were rarely threatened, and on a different day we could’ve scored more.”
Match Stats
Manly United 0
Marconi Stallions 3 (Matej Busek 8’, Jake Trew 48’, Franco Maya 90+3’)
Friday 02 May 2025
Cromer Park
Referee: Kelly Jones
Assistant Referees: Hayden Langholz and Lucy Hungerford
Fourth Official: Simon Ashari
Manly United: 1.Levi Kaye, 3.Matthew O’Donoghue, (4.Jesse Piriz 58’), 6.Bilal Belkadi, (8.Stefano Rossello 67’) 10.Harry McCarthy, 11.Lucas Meek, 12.Rocco Pelle, 15.Taiga Kawano, 19.Alen Aganovic, 23.Darcy Burgess, 26.Harry Van Der Saag, (28.Jasper Chipman 67’), 33.Aaron O’Driscoll, (38.Farah Koko 67’), (45.Miles Miliner 71’)
Unused subs: 21.Anthony Carreras
Yellow cards: Patricius Zwaanswijk (coach) 44’
Red cards: Patricius Zwaanswijk (coach) 44’
Marconi Stallions: 1.James Hilton, 2.Tyren Burnie, 3.Camron Windust, 5.Lachlan Griffiths, 6.Dom Costanzo, (7.Franco Maya Valiente 88’), 8.James Bayliss, 10.Marko Jesic, (12.Julian Monge 88’), 14.Jake Trew, (15.Jawad Rezai 72’), (16.Liam Youlley 88’), (17.Damian Tsekenis 72’), 18.George Daniel, 23.Brandon Vella, 24.Matej Busek
Unused subs: 20.Patrick Williams
Yellow cards: Tyren Burnie 74’
Red cards: None
Player Ratings:
3: Matej Busek (MS)
2: Jake Trew (MS)
1: Aaron O’Driscoll (MU)
-By Tobias Canning
