With their first win at Tarrawanna Oval since Round 2, Tarrawanna Blueys rose to third in the Illawarra Premier League ladder after Round 14. Second half goals from Rick Goodchild and Sangyu Park were enough to see off the challenge of South Coast United. The visitors hit the woodwork in the opening ten minutes and were the stronger side in the first half, but could not fight back once the Blueys had got the upper hand.

The first half was a scrappy affair, with neither side greatly troubling the keepers at either end.
The game started brightly enough, with first Liam Unicomb for United and then Goodchild for the Blueys forcing the keepers into early action. But after Gong Jun Lee hit the woodwork in the tenth minute with a fine left foot shot for the visitors, there was little action in the box from either side.
Denis Stojic was distributing the ball well from midfield for United, not afraid to switch the game from one flank to the other in an effort to find a way through a solid Tarrawanna defence. Unicomb, with his extra pace, was often the target and in the 13th minute, he forced a parried save from Blueys custodian David Hamilton, but once again the back four was on hand to clear up.

Samuel Chapple was particularly impressive in the centre of defence for the Blueys, cutting out any airborne attacks and not afraid to go in for the challenge if United got a sniff on goal.
So the game reached the half way point goalless, but with United having the better of possession and looking the more threatening across the park.

There were early signs that Blueys coach Peter Willis had had a word with his team at half time, as they came out with a much greater sense of purpose for the second stanza.

But it was the visitors again who had the first real chance of the second half. This time it was Yuki Kiyohara who sent the long searching ball forward for Unicomb to run onto. Hamilton spotted the danger coming and raced out of his area to beat Unicomb to the ball. He was forced to use his chest to deny the United striker a chance, though there were loud appeals for hand ball, turned down by the referee.

Having survived that scare, Tarrawanna picked up the tempo and began to play some attractive football at last.  First Matthew Mazevski and Park teamed up well inside the box, stretching the United back line, and then Park himself picked up a loose ball just inside the United half and fired a shot just over the bar from the edge of the area.

As the Blueys stepped up the pressure, Greg Valic and Robbie Brown in particular were putting in some crunching tackles to ward off the danger near the United goal. But their resistance was broken just past the hour mark.

The opening goal from Goodchild might have been an opportunist strike when the Blueys midfielder was gifted the ball a few yards out, but the goal was just deserts for an excellent move that started on halfway and quickly advanced with short, snappy passing involving Bradley Welch, Darren Stone and Park. Goodchild was in the right place at the right time and slotted home for his seventh goal of the season.

After breaking the deadlock, Willis switched his team shape around, bringing on Sam Isabella for Welch and moving Stone to the right wing. This had an immediate impact, with the Blueys creating a series of excellent chances.

When Mazevski and Goodchild set up Isabella in front of goal, the Blueys substitute almost had a repeat of his feat on Wednesday night, when he scored with his first touch. His speedy flick on was just turned away by Jason Bleakley in the United goal.

Next it was Park who went for goal – and missed the target – when Isabella again was waiting in space to his right. With ten minutes to go, it was the Blueys’ turn to hit the woodwork, though United had Bleakley to thank for keeping them in the game. First he parried a shot from Stone onto the upright and then he somehow kept out Park’s follow-up with a reflex save from close range.

And still the Blueys attacks rained in. In what would have been the goal of the game, Park chipped the ball into the path of Isabella, whose first time shot flew inches over the bar.

But there wasn’t long for the home side to wait for the second and clinching goal. In the 82nd minute, Joshua Chapple threaded a perfect pass through to Park, who made no mistake from just inside the area to knock the stuffing out of a tiring United defence.

At the other end, United top scorer Unicomb had a quiet second half, and it was substitute Anton Batur who had several attempts, but usually from long range and each time either wide of the target or an easy take for Hamilton.

There was just time left for Goodchild to create one final chance, setting up Park again whose volley flew just wide of the post to keep the scores at 2-0 when the final whistle blew.

United coach Valic was disappointed after the game: “I felt we were the better team in the first half and we controlled the game. They took their chance with their first goal and we opened up a bit, letting them play a bit more, and they got the second while we were pushing forward, but I prefer to take the risk to try to win the game.”

Blueys coach Willis acknowledged his side had been poor in the first half: “Our balance was out and we couldn’t string two passes together. But we changed the system around and began to get on top about 15 minutes into the second half. We were livelier, playing with more width and trying to get in behind them more. When Sammy (Isabella) came on after the first goal, he could have had three himself almost as soon as he was on. But this was one of those games where you need to grind out a result, and we kept going till we had the second.”

Tarrawanna Blueys – 2 (Goodchild 63’, Park 82’)
South Coast United - 0

Saturday 25 June 2016

Tarrawanna Oval

Referee: Blake Herbert
Assistant referees: Jay Walpole, Liam Webb

Tarrawanna Blueys: David Hamilton, Allister Carrigan, Daniel Chapman, Samuel Chapple, Jake Morlando, Joshua Chapple, Rick Goodchild, Matthew Mazevski (Bryce Dolinscak 87’), Bradley Welch (Sam Isabella 71’), Sangyu Park, Darren Stone ((Jacob Fryday 89’) (subs not used: Ben Learmonth, Christian Pretto)

South Coast United: Jason Bleakley, Lee Gilroy, Greg Valic, Robbie Brown, Tommy Skara (Anton Batur 65’), Oliver Carrasco, Cameron Solevski (Ricky Bertakis 79’), Gong Jun Lee, Liam Unicomb, Denis Stojic, Yuki Kiyohara (subs not used: Chad Fernandez, Chris Lazarevski)

Report by Simon Duffin
Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn