Wollongong United overcame a wobbly first half to take the win against a spirited Blacktown outfit, at Macedonia Park on Tuesday night.

The home team was shaky in the opening 40, allowing Blacktown a lot of space in their goal area, and Blacktown could’ve considered themselves unlucky for not having come away with a goal in that period.

United’s attacking shape was similarly inconsistent, in the face of Blacktown’s defensive pressure.

Sasaki and Crighton presented headaches for United’s defence, continually finding space and looking dangerous every time they found the ball.

United were organised under pressure, but initially lacked the execution needed to overcome the hungry Spartans.

But after a stressful opening quarter, United began to settle, and found themselves with some useful attacking opportunities of their own.

Their breakthrough came toward the end of the first half, when Johnny Martinoski found enough space to blast his shot beyond the out-stretched Saliadarre and give the home team a one-nil advantage going into the second half.

When they came back out, United looked to have risen noticeably in confidence, shutting down the Blacktown attack with much greater precision than they had in the first.

United found a great source of inspiration from Karouna Michael, who put away a magnificent header just minutes into the second half.

Blacktown struggled to get themselves back into the game from this point, despite some great strikes that were valiantly fended off by United’s keeper.

The confidence gained from a two goal advantage, allowed United’s forwards a great deal more assurance in their passing and ball control as well as being able to learn their lessons from the first half and better defend their goal.

By the middle of the second half, Blacktown looked to be tiring, enough to lose some of their counter-attacking pace, and enough for United to find the another goal this time courtesy of Bradley Welch and go three-nil up.

Holding an insurmountable lead, United seemed happy to play the clock down, and while they didn’t completely let the guard down, they did allow Blacktown’s Anthony Proia to weave through the defence and find the net to salvage some pride for the visitors.

Wollongong United now face a tie against another NPL1 team in Sydney Olympic with game details to be advised. They are now just two wins away from qualifying for the main (national) draw. 

 

Wollongong United – 3 (Martinoski, Michael, Welch)

Blacktown Spartans – 1 (Proia)

 

FFA Cup

Macedonia Park, 19/4/16

 

Wollongong – Nastic, An, Brooks, Horo, Hajitos, Kinjo, Martin, Michaels, Sekutkoski, Tsovolos, Welch, Yuzawa, Ristevski, Wylie, Brooks, Dimitrievski

Blacktown Spartans – Saliadarre, Mutch, Dukic, Perkatis, Sasaki, Ott, Proia, Nakamura, Crighton, Morton, Whiteside, Tomohiro, Tosi, Gauthier, Tanner, Nascimben

 

Report by Oliver Chaseling

Photo - courtesy of Narelle Tugrul