Despite playing on Sunday, on Wednesday, and
then again on Friday, the boys put in a good shift and with a bit more luck
and/or composure, we may have and probably should have, walked away from this
match with all 3 points against Manly United.
As was expected, we started the match off a bit sluggishly, but as the game
went on, we gradually got ourselves into the swing of things.
It was a fairly even first-half as both sides had opportunities to open the
scoring in the first 30 minutes. Unfortunately, it would be our opponents who
would open the scoring before half-time, with yet another flukey long range
strike. We’ve been on the receiving end of way too many of those already this
season.
It was definitely a disappointing end to the first-half and at the half-time
break we went in 1-0 down.
We looked a lot more sharper at the start of the second-half and it did not
take us long to find the equaliser. With Mitch Stamatellis finding the back of
the net via a quality header, which beat the Manly goalkeeper.
Although the opposition had their own chances, we were on top from that moment
on and had a plethora of chances throughout that second-half to take the lead,
but once again as has been the case this season, our finishing let us down.
As expected, Manly went down the other end and took the lead themselves with a
sucker-punch of a goal, once again, we have been on the receiving end of a fair
few of those as well this season.
Credit where credit is due, the players did not drop their heads and continued to
look for goals and 5 minutes from the end, we grabbed our 2nd equaliser of the
game, thanks to a wonderful volley from
Dimi Petratos.
We had a couple of chances late on to grab a winner, but it was not be and so
we had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
As the full-time whistle was blown, it was a
mixture of disappointment and pride as the result was not ideal. The players
put in a shift and gave it their all but deep down, we felt we deserved more
than just a draw.
The injury crisis at the club has widened, with the inclusion of Alex Sanchez
and Hagi Gligor to the injury list. The latter appears to have ruptured his ACL
for the 2nd year in a row, pretty sure it was at this exact same part of the
season as last year. If this is true, it is a devastating blow for the bloke and
we wish him all the best in his recovery again.
They both join Zac Mackenzie, Brendan Hooper and now Niko Tsattalios and
Radovan Pavicevic, who looked to have picked up knocks as well, during the
match with Manly.
This of course, has taken a heavy toll on the
team and our results, this current packed schedule we are experiencing is not
helping things either.
A rare bright spot for the club during this difficult opening 1/3 of the
season, is the emergence of Dimi Petratos who due to injuries, has been given
his chance to show us what he’s got in 1st Grade. And he hasn’t disappointed
with his performances so far and even scoring in our last 2 matches.
For the Club Championship, the U18s lost 4-0 and the U20s won 3-1.
Last Wednesday we made relatively light work of Lindfield FC in our Round 4 FFA
Cup Qualifier, winning the match 3-1.
In the Draw for Round 5 FFA Cup Qualifying, Sydney Olympic has drawn the
Stanmore Hawks, a very interesting match-up. Details TBC.
The boys now have a solid break before our next match on ANZAC Day, Thursday
Afternoon April 25, against traditional rivals APIA Leichhardt, at Belmore
Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 4.45pm. Will it be 5th time lucky in trying to
notch up our first home win of the season?
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