St George City sink Spirit in dramatic fashion
St George City had a remarkable come from behind 3-2 win over NWS Spirit FC in a classic game of two halves on a chilly Saturday evening at Penshurst Park.
St George City’s second half was definitely one of their finest with three goals after trailing at the break by two.
After a winless run of five games, St George City may well indeed have turned their season around with this win over a quality NWS Spirit who, with their recent back-to-back wins over NPL Men’s NSW powerhouses Blacktown City and APIA Leichhardt, were a team to be reckoned with at Penshurst Park.
In the 3rd minute Michael Konestabo for the visitors went charging towards goal but he was beautifully stopped in his tracks by goalkeeper Jack Kenny, as always very alert between the sticks.
St George City responded in the 12th minute and they came ever so close when a well worked training ground corner from Paolo Mitry found Brodie Clarkson in the middle, but his header from point-blank range was only marginally wide of the target.
On the quarter hour mark some sloppy defending by the home side allowed Konestabo to get in behind the defenders and poke the ball just over the crossbar, in what was a dangerous chance that really should have been avoided by the Red and Whites.
A few minutes later a poor back pass by the home side allowed Yu Okubo to grab the ball on the right and fire across the entire face of goal in what was another gift by St George City to the opposition.
NWS Spirit FC then took the lead in the 24th minute through sheer weight of possession. Takumi Ofuka from the by-line found Yu Okubo in the middle and the latter simply provided a nice assist to Konestabo to fire home from close range.
In the 34th minute a free-kick from the right found Yu Okubo well positioned in the middle of the box but his header was nicely neutralised by Kenny.
NWS Spirit continued to dominate possession in the opposition half and made it two prior to the break. A nice midfield move saw Konestabo link with Corey Kavanagh who fed a delightful through-ball to Ofuka and the Japanese midfielder slotted home along the carpet of Penshurst Park. NWS Spirit FC thus went into the sheds at the break two goals up.
The first goal-scoring opportunity of the second half belonged to Konestabo who in the 48th minute forced Kenny into a nice save to deny the Macquarie Park-based side a third goal.
In the 58th minute a long free kick found Simon Nicholas at the by-line who turned it back to Konestabo and his nice attempt forced Kenny into a stretching save.
St George City a minute later replied through Louis Khoury who, with a great strike from outside the box, fired just wide of the goal and it was the spark that the home side needed to start their remarkable comeback.
St George City received a penalty in the 75th minute when a ball from the right by Jesse Photi hit the hand of Bradie Smith and experienced referee Kurt Ams who was right there on the spot had no hesitation in awarding the spot-kick. Marc McNulty, acquired from Shamrock Rovers in Ireland in the off-season, from the spot made no mistake to get the home side right back into the contest.
St George City’s second goal was a delightful piece of invention when a free kick quickly taken in the 83rd minute by replacement Goncalo Agrelos found Solomon Monahan-Vaiika in the middle and the captain equalised with the NWS Spirit defence caught off guard.
Agrelos was again the provider a few minutes later for St George City’s third. His corner found Khoury lurking with intent outside the box and his great strike from distance ended up in the bottom left hand corner of the net to cap off a most remarkable turnaround and send the home fans in the stands into raptures.
After the game St George City coach Manny Spanoudakis was delighted with the win given the circumstances that his side has faced with injuries in recent weeks.
“I am very proud of this team because we never give up,” he stated.
“We always believe that we can win and tonight we faced a very good and organised team in Spirit.
“We have had a lot of disruptions. We have five starting centre-backs out and we had to play our midfielder Brodie [Clarkson] in defence and then make a number of adjustments accordingly.
“I am very proud of the character in this team and that’s most important because we are building a culture here. At halftime the message was that we are still in this game and that we needed to fight as we always do.
“I am very proud of the result because everyone contributed and even though this was a good second half tonight for us, we have actually had some really good halves of football throughout the season.
“Even this morning Nathan Grimaldi pulled out with the flu to add to our injury woes, so the character, the bond and the belief that our team showed maintains our confidence going forward.”
NWS Spirit FC assistant coach Luca Falcone on the other hand, while disappointed with the result, was still satisfied with aspects of his side’s play.
“We felt in control of the game and we created a lot in the first half,” he said.
“We expected a response from St George but to concede the way we did with three goals was disappointing.
“The nature of the way we conceded the goals was disappointing because there weren’t too many chances outside of that for St George. We recently have had two home games with two really big wins but now we may need to look at this away loss as it’s our second away loss and improve on that going forward.”
Match Stats
St GEORGE CITY: 3 (McNulty 75’ pen, Monahan-Vaiika 83’, Khoury 86’)
NWS SPIRIT FC: 2 (Konestabo 24’, Ofuka 39’)
Saturday 14th June
Penshurst Park
Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant referees: Charbel Geha, Hayden Kaye
Fourth Official: Alana Zic
St GEORGE CITY: 1. Jack Kenny, 2. Matthew Wahby (16. William Kounnas 70’), 4. Solomon Monahan-Vaiika, 7. Nathan Roberts (19. Jesse Photi 46’), 8. Dominic Cox, 9. Marc McNulty, 10. Paolo Mitry (18. Goncalo Agrelos 78’), 12. Kai Kamikura (11. Fumoto Kamada 46’), 23. Dakota Askew, 25. Brodie Clarkson, 33. Louis Khoury (4. Zakariya Hammoud 92’).
Substitutes not used: 13. Cameron Kemp.
Yellow Cards: Cox 86’, Khoury 87’
Red Cards: Nil
NWS SPIRIT FC: 1. Christopher Marques, 3. Kyah Williams, 4. Bradie Smith, 6. Corey Kavanagh (11. Ollie Wiggin 69’), 7. Frankie Ljucovic, 8. Grant Cornwell, 9. Yu Okubo, 10. Michael Konestabo, 13. Simon Nicholas, 19. Zayne Ahluwalia (17. Jacob Chidiac 88’), 22. Takumi Ofuka (14. Marco Arambasic 79’).
Substitutes not used: 16. Charlie Broomhead, 20. Austin Oates, 51. Christopher Chen.
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Louis Khoury (StG)
2 – Solomon Monahan-Vaiika (StG)
1 – Michael Konestabo (NWS)
By National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Joe Russo
