Four goals, no winner in St George City – Blacktown City FC battle
St George City hosted Blacktown City FC on Easter Saturday night in Round 9 of the NSW NPL Men’s competition, with the two sides playing out an entertaining 2–2 draw — a result that likely pleased neither team but ultimately reflected the balance of play.
Blacktown City held the upper hand in the first half, while St George City claimed momentum in the second stanza.
St George City entered the clash off the back of a heavy defeat to UNSW, compounding a difficult start to their season.
Meanwhile, Blacktown were also looking to respond after a narrow loss to SD Raiders in the previous round. Both sides were in need of a win to kickstart their campaigns, and while neither secured all three points, the draw at least offers something to build on.
Blacktown City nearly made the perfect start in the 5th minute when Kodai Tanaka delivered a cross from the left that almost caught everyone off guard, striking the crossbar and giving the home side an early scare.
St George responded in the 16th minute through Paolo Mitry, who powered his way into the box and, on the turn, forced goalkeeper Cayden Henderson into a strong save. From the resulting corner, Roman Culina delivered a dangerous ball that was superbly cleared off the line by a desperate header from captain Travis Major.
Midway through the half, Jesse Photi came close to breaking the deadlock with an opportunistic header at the far post. This time, however, it was Lachlan Tilt who came to the rescue, heading the ball off the line to deny Blacktown.
On the half-hour mark, Blacktown’s finishing let them down. A long speculative ball found Mitchell Mallia inside the box, but the former Marconi player could only fire into the side netting despite being one-on-one with goalkeeper Franklin Jan.
Blacktown continued to press and, in the 37th minute, should have taken the lead when a loose ball fell kindly to Major. However, from close range, he was denied by an excellent save from Jan, who parried the effort with his feet.
The breakthrough finally arrived in the 41st minute. A high ball from Tanaka was headed forward by Major into the path of Maksim Jez, who finished neatly with an opportunistic strike to give the visitors a deserved lead.
St George came out strongly after the break and nearly equalised in the 54th minute when Mitry tested Henderson again, with the goalkeeper producing another solid save to turn the ball around the post.
The equaliser came in the 59th minute via a well-worked set piece. Culina’s long, drifting corner found Benjamin Berry at the back post, who headed the ball down for Ahmad Taleb to nod home from close range.
Blacktown regained the lead in the 77th minute after capitalising on a midfield turnover. Nikola Skataric found Mallia on the left, who delivered a precise assist to Caleb Jackson-Brown. The forward made no mistake, finishing from an acute angle.
The visitors nearly extended their lead moments later when Skataric produced another excellent cross, this time finding Sebastian Hayward, whose flick-on forced a superb save from Jan.
However, St George refused to back down and found their equaliser in the 85th minute through Stefano Rossello, who weaved his way through multiple defenders before finishing brilliantly.
There was late drama in the 88th minute when Hayward’s shot was spilled by Jan, but the goalkeeper recovered just in time to prevent the ball from crossing the line.
Post-match, Blacktown City coach Mark Crittenden acknowledged the positives but felt his side had let three points slip.
“I thought in the first half we were fairly good and maybe we could have scored again, but in the second half, in the first 15 minutes or so, we sat deep and they put a lot of pressure on us,” he said.
“However, our effort on this tough pitch, which is tiny and where everyone is in your face, made me proud of our lads because we battled really hard.
“Unfortunately, we got ourselves back in front in the second half but couldn’t hang on for the last five minutes or so.
“The results this year don’t really tell our story because we have been better than that and, if you take out Major and Mallia, our average age is 20.”
St George City coach Mirko Jurilj shared similar mixed feelings.
“We didn’t start off too well and they had a few good chances in that first half,” he told Football NSW.
“The second half was a lot better for us because we controlled the game early on, but our defending wasn’t the best and we got undone and they scored again.
“Blacktown is still a top team despite their recent results, but at home tonight I was definitely looking to take all three points.
“We have about seven players out injured at the moment, which is not helping our cause, but luckily we have a strong squad and we can still assemble a decent starting eleven.”
Match Stats
St GEORGE CITY FA: 2 (Taleb 59’, Rossello 85’)
BLACKTOWN CITY: 2 (Jez 41’, Jackson-Brown 77’)
Saturday 4th April
Penshurst Park
Referee: Stephen Lucas
Assistant referees: Amber Morris, Glen Stubbings
Fourth Official: Kai Jopson
St GEORGE CITY FA: 13. Franklin Jan, 2. Matthew Wahby (8. Stefano Rossello 62’), 3. Benjamin Berry, 4. Solomon Monahan-Vaiika, 6. Tarik Ercan, 10. Paolo Mitry, 11. Jesse Photi, 19. Roman Culina (34. Luke Orsina 83’), 20. Theph Theph (39. Max Martincich 83’), 30. Ahmad Taleb (7. Oscar Gultekin 75’), 44. Hugo McAteer (16. Yohn Pedersen 62’).
Substitutes not used: 1. Jack Kenny, 36. Toby Tindale,
Yellow Cards: Monahan-Vaiika 71’, Rossello 87’
Red Cards: Nil
BLACKTOWN CITY FC: 1. Cayden Henderson, 3. Lachlan Tilt, 6. Adam Berry, 7. Travis Major (9. Nikola Skataric 46’), 10. Maksim Jez, 11. Kodai Tanaka, 14. Mitchell Mallia (19. Sebastian Hayward 75’), 15. Caleb Jackson-Brown, 22. Jacob Maniti, 23. Jett Long, 27. Nathan Grimaldi.
Substitutes not used: 12. Daniel McHugh, 16. Riley Nolan, 18. Jake Briggs, 20. Cooper Rogers, 21. Aiden Renshaw.
Yellow Cards: Jez 66’, Maniti 71’
Red Cards: Nil
Player Ratings
3 – Maksim Jez (Blacktown City)
2 – Solomon Monahan-Vaiika (St George)
1 – Roman Culina (St George)
By National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s reporter Joe Russo
