Marconi and Sutherland share the spoils in the rain

It was a penalty late in the game that left Marconi’s coach Luke Casserly shaking his head as Sutherland Sharks secured a draw in the wet at Marconi Stadium.

After the game Casserly could not hide his disappointment at not managing to secure all three points.

“It’s really, really frustrating because we played against a team that was coming second in the comp and I thought we did really well” he said.

“We lost two points but we paid the price for not taking our chances and, of course, one little thing [the penalty] can change the whole game.

“To come out of this game with only a point makes me feel sorry for the boys because they worked so hard, stuck to the game plan really well and put in a super performance.”

Sutherland Sharks mentor Robbie Stanton, himself a former Marconi player, was somewhat more philosophical about the game and made it clear that, from his point of view, Sutherland deserved a draw.

“We probably didn’t turn up in the first half with the right attitude as we were a bit switched off because our disjointed week, but in the second half we got our act together,” he said.

“I thought we were a bit more dominant and, in the end, a draw is probably a fair result.”

Stanton was having none of the talk that his team may have been fortunate. When questioned about it, he made it clear that luck doesn’t exist in football.

“If you look at their goal it came off a deflection from our bloke; you make your own luck and they made theirs there.

“For our goal, we drove into the box and we got the penalty. I don’t believe in luck because if opportunities happen, you are doing good things.”

An early torrential shower saw referee Kurt Ams consult one of his assistants, Sarah Ho, about the weather. That deluge virtually brought the game to a stand-still as not much happened for the dwindling band of supporters present in the stands.

A shot by Matthew Gordon in the 23rd minute that was slightly off target was the most entertaining event, before Panny Nikas for the visitors curled a lovely free-kick over the wall but was denied by a diving save from James Chronopoulos.

In the 35th minute Matt Bailey fired in a powerful drive from outside the box, but was only slightly off target much to the disappointment of his teammates.

A few minutes later Marconi actually took the lead out of nothing when the ball bounced in the box for what seemed to be an eternity and, despite the presence of two Sutherland defenders, Josh Sama managed to poke a boot out and score.

Marconi should really have scored again just before the break after Gordon made a quick run down the right and cut the ball back inside; Paul Kohler then failed to clear and Keith Shevlin, who ended up with the ball at his feet, blasted over from very close range.

The second half got underway in glorious sunshine which made for a real contrast to what was experienced earlier in the game.

In the 61st minute the ball made its way to Nick Stavroulakis after a corner kick and he fired in a powerful long distance shot that was well saved by an alert Chronopoulos.

A dangerous cross by Sean O’Connell in the 75’ minute could really have been anything except that it went across the entire face of goal without a nudge in from any of his teammates.

A few minutes later, as Mike Katz went into the box, he was brought down by Umut Tokdogan and for referee Ams it was a penalty.

Jim Bakis took the perfect penalty sending Chronopoulos the wrong way and scores were then even.

Late in the game Nico Sama forced Denham into a good reflex save from close range as Marconi certainly looked to restore the lead.

Right at the end Nahuel Arrarte skyed a ball just over the crossbar as the Sutherland Sharks breathed a collective sigh of relief.

MARCONI STALLIONS 1
(Sama 38’)
SUTHERLAND SHARKS 1
(Nikas 79’ penalty)

MARCONI: 22. James Chronopoulos, 2. Andrew Mailer, 4. Umut Tokdogan, 6. Brenton Rhodes, 8. Sean O’Connell, 9. Keith Shevlin, 11. Matthew Gordon (18. Nathan Jagelman 84’), 20. Josh Sama, 23. Christopher Nunes (10. Nico Sama 71’), 24. Daniel Petkovski, 26. Nahuel Arrarte.


SUTHERLAND SHARKS: 1. Nathan Denham, 2. George Souris (20. Paul Kohler 39’), 4. Yianni Fragogianis, 6. Sam Awad (7. Jim Bakis 54’), 8. Chris Price, 10. Matt Bailey, 11. Todd Halloran (55. Lachlan Cahill 78’), 12. Hayden Morton, 14. Nick Stavroulakis, 15. Mike Katz, 23. Panny Nikas.