Blacktown City hang on to defeat 10-man Sharks
Sutherland Sharks’ woes continued at Seymour Shaw Park on Saturday night as they suffered their 14th loss of the 2025 NPL Men’s NSW campaign going down 2-1 to Blacktown City as the Shire club’s fight from the relegation zone continued.
Whilst Blacktown City craved the win to push on for a finals series spot, Sutherland needed the points to put distance between themselves and teams below them in the relegation fight.
The first piece of action saw Mitch Mallia smash a delightful cross for Maksim Jez to head goalward as Danijel Nizic produced a stunning stop to deny City. Nizic was called into action almost immediately again when Mallia thought he had opened the scoring but for the ‘keeper to deny the opportunity inside twelve minutes. There had been little goalmouth action prior nor immediately after as each sought to create openings with limited success.
City though, were content to weather the early Sharks’ attacking play in their usual accomplished style and forced Sutherland into many errors allowing them to pick the ball up cheaply and set off up field but the home side were proving difficult to break down with Kotaro Katsuta often dropping into a more sweeping role ahead of a back three.
The deadlock was broken midway through the half when Lachlan Campbell rose majestically at the back post to direct a pinpoint Jakob Cresnar cross from the left back across goal and into the net in the 27th minute.
Mallia almost made it two after a jinking run down the right and shot that Nizic was again equal to as City began to move through the gears.
It wasn’t long before the lead was doubled when another Mallia lay-off allowed Adam Berry to fire home with a stunning drive that hit top bins to give City a two-advantage after 34 minutes.
Tye McGowan found the side netting in reply to register Sutherland’s first attempt on goal as the half-time whistle neared completion and began to push and probe around the area however, Blacktown never looked flustered and were able to frustrate their opponents.
A raft of attacking options for Sutherand were made after the break as they chased the game with one being Maki Petratos after Cayden Henderson saved the first attempt with the ball eventually falling to the Sharks’ striker who made no mistake in burying the chance.
Lachie Fields almost levelled but a miss-hit shot was comfortably saved by Henderson.
For the first time in the match, City were rocking under the pressure. The goal, aligned to half-time changes, sparked the home side into frenzied action.
If the fightback looked on, it was snatched away when Fields received a second Yellow Card in the 61st minute reducing the Sharks to 10-men.
The task at hand had been hard enough as it stood but a mistimed challenge, not malicious, made it nearly impossible against the well drilled City outfit. It was a pivotal moment that would define outcome.
As expected, Blacktown rapidly began to control the fixture once more despite Sutherland continuing to press in search of the equalizer.
Danny Choi crossed for Travis Major who, in turn, laid it back for Sebastian Haywood who could only watch on helplessly as it whizzed past the woodwork in what was City’s best move of the game. It was deserving of a goal, but wayward finishing kept Sutherland in the contest.
With the advantage in personnel, City were dragging Sutherland all over the pitch and hitting on the break in a professional manner.
If the Sharks were to garner anything, they would be made to work extremely hard for it.
Despite a courageous and revitalized second-half performance, being a man down it proved too difficult a task to overcome being down by two at the break and City, perhaps not comfortably at times but generally unphased all evening, produced a professional display to net the win and vital three points.
Match Stats
Sutherland Sharks 1 (Maki Petratos 50’)
Blacktown City 2 (Lachlan Campbell 27’, Adam Berry 34’)
Seymour Shaw Park, Miranda
Saturday, 19th July, 2025, 2025
Referee: Jackson Mackie
Assistants: Hayden Michlmayer and Aaron Bloch
Fourth Official: Wael Amir
Sutherland Sharks: 1. Danijel Nizic, 2. Lachlan Macdonald, 4. Lachlan Fields, 6. Mo Ahmed (27. Matthew Jackson 46’), 8. Nick Sullivan, 15.Matthew Moric, 19. Tariq Maia (77. Ieo Mazis 66’), 22. Kotaro Katsuta, 33. Yianni Nicolau, 44. Tye McGowan (21. Mason Fernandez 46’), 88.Brendan Gan (10. Yerasimakis Petratos 46’)
Subs not used: 9. Jaden Gasking, 30. Sebastian Arranz
Yellow Cards: (Lachlan Fields 57’ + 61’)
Red Cards: Lachlan Fields 61’
Blacktown City: 1. Cayden Henderson, 4. Lachlan Campbell, 5. Grant Lynch, 6. Adam Berry, 7. Travis Major, 10. Maksim Jez (22. Jacob Maniti 83’), 14. Mitchell Mallia (11. Seung Joo Choi 72’), 16.Benjamin Berry, 17. Martin Fernandez (19. Sebastian Haywood 66’), 18.Nicholas O’Brien, 23. Jakob Cresnar
Subs not used: 25. Reuben Awaritefe, 30. William Kingham
Yellow Cards: Maksim Jez 60’, Ben Berry 76’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Mitch Mallia (BC)
2 – Adam Berry (BC)
1 – Danijel Nizic (SS)
By NPL NSW Men’s Reporter Micky Brock
