Suns grind as Manly waste golden opportunity
A WASTEFUL Manly United were left pondering what may have been after Rockdale held on for a 1-1 draw at Cromer Park in its PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s clash on Sunday afternoon.
United’s Dejan Pandurevic was presented with a half chance with just two minutes played but couldn’t take it following a miskick from Suns keeper David Bradasevic.
With only five minutes played the away side took the lead.
Following slick lead up play from one time Manly junior Dylan Macallister, Alec Urosevski bundled the ball home from six yards, much to the delight of the travelling fans.
United should have equalised after 11 minutes.
A teasing corner from Adam Parkhouse was met with intent by defender Travis Oughtred, but he couldn’t keep his header down, with his effort sailing over the crossbar.
United kept pressing and Rockdale were constantly on the back foot, with the superior fitness of the home side obvious to the neutral.
Captain Brendan Cholakian went close on 22 minutes, but Bradasevic was up to the task, parrying the effort wide.
Dom Ferguson was the next to try his luck, connecting well with a volley with 37 minutes on the clock, but his effort whistled past the post.
The Suns were always going to ask the question playing counter attacking football, and with 44 minutes played evergreen playmaker Paul Reid toe poked an effort which an alert Dylan Mitchell kept out.
For all their first half endeavour United deserved a goal and it came in injury time via Jamie Lobb.
Yet another quality corner from Parkhouse wasn’t cleared to safety and Lobb volleyed home to make it 1-1 at the break.
Rockdale’s push for a win was made difficult when defender Steven Hesketh was sent off after his second bookable offence with 53′ minutes played.
United almost took the lead seconds later.
Sam Gallagher reacted first to a corner whipped into the near post, but Bradasevic brilliantly plucked it out of the air as it appeared destined to find the back of the net.
On 57 minutes United missed another simple chance.
Travis Cooper elected to square a ball to Cholakian when a shot from the one time Newcastle Jets winger was the better option.
As the game drew to a close both teams emptied their benches trying to poach a winner, but it ended a stalemate.
Cholakian didn’t mince his words when reflecting on the contest.
"Same old story for us,” the Manly captain told Football NSW.
"We created more than enough, but didn’t take our chances.
"A point against Rockdale is decent, but when you consider they had 10 men for most of the second half we should have gone on with the job."
Suns skipper Daniel Petkovski was happy his team held firm.
"We had to dig deep, Manly asked plenty of questions, they are a quality side,” he said.
"Cromer (Park) is never an easy place to play, they (United) play a certain way which is hard to contain.
"Luckily for us we did enough to come away with something."
Match Stats
Manly United 1 (Jamie Lobb 45′)
Rockdale 1 (Alec Urosevski 5′)
Cromer Park, Cromer
Sunday April 24, 2016
Referee: A.Arndt
Assistant referees: S.Edeling, V.Bertuccioli
Fourth official: T.Plasto
Manly United: 1.MITCHELL Dylan, 2.PAULL Kieren, 3.LOBB Jamie, 4.OUGHTRED Travis, 5.WILLIAMS Rhys, 6.GALLAGHER Sam, 7.COOPER Travis, (16.BERTI Sipan 75′) 8.FERGUSON Dom, (18.BRAGG Daniel 81′) 10.CHOLAKIAN Brendan, 11.PARKHOUSE Adam, (31.WHITLOCK Dylan 89′) 14.PANDUREVIC Dejan
Substitutes not used: 20.SYRON McKenzie, 26.BAKER Charlie
Yellow cards: Lobb 7′, Ferguson 17′, Paull 81′ Pandurevic 82′
Red cards: Nil
Rockdale: 1.BRADASEVIC David, 17.ALAMEDDINE Toufic, 8.CANAK Alex, (12.EL HAFIANE Idriss 60′) 3.HESKETH Steven, 9.MACALLISTER Dylan, (18.DASCAL David 89′) 10.MAKRILLOS Peter, 4.McCLENAHAN Trent, 2.PETKOVSKI Daniel, 15.PETRILLO Nicholas, 5.REID Paul, 7.UROSEVSKI Alec (11.TANOSKI Hristijan 71′)
Substitutes not used: 22.BAZI Andrew
Yellow cards: Hesketh 35′, Reid 41′, Petkovski 82′, Tanoski 90′
Red cards: Hesketh 51′
Player ratings
3 – David Bradasevic (RCS)
2 – Sam Gallagher (MU)
1 – Rhys Williams (MU)
