APIA Leichardt fall to fifth straight loss

Rockdale City Suns have launched themselves even further from relegation after following a win in all three grades at Marconi last week with a 3-0 first grade win away to APIA Leichardt Tigers.

The U18’s and U20’s didn’t continue to help Rockdale in their bid to move up the Club Championship ladder and steer clear of relegation, APIA Under 18’s winning 3-1 and the Under 20’s drawing 1-1 despite the Tigers playing half an hour with 10 men.

But the demolition in the main game condemned APIA to their fifth straight loss and they sit dangerously close to the drop zone.

It took just three minutes for the visitors to make an impact at a sunny Lambert Park on the refreshing time slot of Saturday afternoon – match days are almost exclusively Saturday night’s and Sunday afternoon’s. Jason Naidovski latched onto a cross down the right from Adem Kir and finished strongly to get the game off to a blistering start.

The momentum continued for Rockdale and they should have scored a second a minute later. A lightning counter attack led to Shay Spitz being released down the left and his ball across the face of goal found Marino Musumeci who missed an open goal at the far post.

Things didn’t get easier for APIA when, in the last 15 minutes of the first half, the home side copped three crucial blows.

The first was captain Franco Parisi forced to leave the pitch through injury after half an hour. It was followed up with a bout of bad luck when ten minutes later APIA had three shots in a row stopped on the line.

Robbie Younis had the first of the three chances. He managed to beat the 'keeper but couldn’t get his shot past Paul Dee on the line. The rebound fell to David D’Apuzzo down the left who failed to hit his shot through a host of bodies. Nick Rizzo pounced on the ball after the second deflection but weakly struck his shot at ‘keeper Ben McNamara who held the ball and ended the scare.

Two minutes from half time and Rockdale rubbed salt into APIA’s wounds. After desperately surviving APIA’s triple threat, the visitors hit back all too easily. Right defender Dee’s run was met by a great ball from Kir which put him in behind the defence. Whilst one on one with the ‘keeper Dee cut back the ball across goal to Spitz who tapped in to the open goal.

Rockdale went through the first half of the second term fairly relaxed. APIA’s best chance was a shout for handball turned down a few minutes after the teams returned to the pitch and a free-kick that Rizzo volleyed, the deflection hit over the crossbar.

Rockdale had a few off-target opportunities themselves as the match sat at 2-0 until the 87th minute. Sash Tirovski put the icing on the cake with a spectacular header into the top far corner to finish off a clinical performance.

APIA Leichardt Tigers 0
Rockdale City Suns 3 (Naidovski 3’, Spitz 43’, Tirovski 87’)