Campbelltown City made a statement after defeating local rivals Adelaide Blue Eagles 2-1 last Saturday at Marden Sports Complex in Round 21 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia. 

Campbelltown now find themselves in sixth position but level with Blue Eagles and Adelaide City with 37 points and just two wins off top spot. 

In cold conditions, the home side started brightly and had a host of chances but weren’t able to find their way past City’s Goalkeeper Matthew Moore. Yvan Boyokino provided plenty of headaches for Campbelltown as he teamed up with Kym Harris as City were forced to defend deep in their own half. 

City found their feet and Andrew Kaine’s blast from the edge of the box in the 30th minute forced a terrific save from Blue Eagles’ Goalkeeper Pedram Sourjani. 
 
Blue Eagles enjoyed the better of the first half but at the break the scored remained locked at 0-0 however the match took a dramatic turn in the 50th minute.  

City’s talisman Michael Matricciani was brought down in the box and he stepped up to cooly slot the penalty. With that cushion Blue Eagles were forced to get on the front foot but were denied by a stoic City defence. 

Campbelltown had a long and hopeful ball down the right flank causing havoc for Blue Eagles. A routine clearance was not made and Matricciani was there to land the killer blow.Blue Eagles didn’t waiver and second half substitute Anthony Dimas finished off a brilliant piece of play to find the back of the net.  

A tense finale provided plenty of action but the scoreboard didn’t change and City came away with an important win. 

Campbelltown's Shaun Harvey talked about the importance of claiming a big scalp on a day of upsets around the league. 

“It doesn’t get much better than that and with the whole rivalry as well. It’s good to stay in the top seven and get the win because if you lose your out pretty quickly.” 

Michael Matricciani now finds himself top of the league goal scorers and Harvey spoke about another clinical performance from the City talisman. 

“Yeah he’s brilliant. He always scores for you which he did on the weekend. It’s what you need up there, someone to put away those chances and he doesn’t have trouble doing that.” 

City now need to make sure they can maintain their assault and Harvey was confident they have the collective determination to do it under the leadership of Coach Joe Mullen. 

“I think it starts with intensity at training and forget about the weekend and focus on the next game. He was happy but he was quick to focus on next week because really we haven’t done anything so we have to get ready for next week.” 

It’s a different story for Blue Eagles who found themselves coming up just short. Playmaker Yvan Boyokino talked about what was lacking on Saturday afternoon. 

“We were a little bit unlucky to not take the chances we had in the first half. Campbelltown are a good team and they took their chance with the penalty and their second goal came from a mistake but that can happen to any team.” 

Boyokino gave his thoughts on whether Blue Eagles need to make big changes before such a crucial period. 

“I don’t think so. In the first half we played well, we created chances but sometimes a team is just that little bit better and Campbelltown were. It’s a game of soccer and when you have a good team like them with a good coach this can happen.” 

He also said the league should remember what a proud group Blue Eagles have. 

“We won’t give in, we’ll get back to training. We’re only 6 points from top, I’m very confident and I trust my team mates, coaches and everybody at the club will do everything they can to get back up the ladder.” 

Article by Matthew Carcich - @Matt_Carcich