Round 4 Match Report |
Saturday, 26 April 2008 | |||||
Line up: M.John, D. Cameron, C. Konstas, L. Grounds, K. Joryeff, S. Beck (B. Cogger 63), G. Greenhill, B. Devlin, S. Nicholson, G. Papadopoulos (E. Christodoulou 63), F. Richards. Subs; J. Blackburn, M. Cini, A. Pecora. Bentleigh Greens inflicted the Georgies first defeat of the season with this 2-0 win at the Knights Stadium on Sunday night. Coach Andy O'Dell re-acted to last week's fade out in defence with the introduction of midfielder Barry Devlin to the centre of the defence in place of Michael Sacks who was dropped. O'Dell also introduced Steven Beck in midfield whose international clearance came through during the week. The other change saw George Papadopoulos start in place of Trent Waterson who had an injured groin. The game failed to ignite in the first half with limited chances at either ends. George Papadopoulous looked very sharp on the right wing with his darting runs and good combination with Fidell Richards. The home team did well to restrict Bentleigh in the opening 45 minutes despite playing against a strong wind. The even contest swung the Greens way when they were awarded a penalty kick at the 53 minute mark. Former Georgie John Sapazovski tangled with Sunshine's centre back Barry Devlin for a high ball with both players holding onto each other as they fell to the ground. Referee Bruno D'Aniello thought Devlin was doing more of the holding and pointed to the penalty spot, from which Sapazovski converted to give his side the lead. The goal lifted the visitors as they increased their tempo to go further ahead four minutes later. The Georgies defence was caught too far forward leaving Damir Lonvancic with the simple task of beating Martin John from 6 metres. The striker easily converted to make it 2-0 and give Sunshine a mountain to climb. Bentleigh had control for the remainder of the second half easily restricting the Georgies to limited opportunities. As the Georgies pushed forward looking for a goal to get back into the game, they left themselves exposed at the back. Only wayward shooting from several good opportunities by Bentleighs' strikers kept the score at 2 nil. To their credit Sunshine kept plugging away and came close to reducing the arrears when a header by Barry Devlin flashed narrowly over the cross-bar. Kyle Joryeff went closer in the dying minutes when he rounded Peter Gavalas in Bentleigh's goals, but his shot from a narrow angle was cleared off the line by a Green's defender. After a promising start where Sunshine was the better team, it was to be Bentleigh's night when the balance of the game tilted in Bentleigh's favour once the penalty kick was awarded. Under 21's: SUNSHINE GEORGE CROSS 1 BENTLEIGH GREENS 2 Goal Scorer: Damian Ottelli A goal at the end of each half secured Bentleigh Greens a 2-1 win over the Georgies. After an even first half it was the Greens who took a half time lead with the last kick of the first half. Both sides had their fair share of scoring chances in the first half with the Georgies restricting the visitors to long range shooting. Goalkeeper Cameron Salik was rarely troubled but the Georgie keeper would have been disappointed to be beaten right on the stroke of half time. The Georgies were in with a chance of winning this match following Damian Ottelli's equaliser, however it was to be Bentleigh's day with the visitors scoring the winner in injury time following a goal mouth scramble.
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