South Coast Flame suffered an immense blow to their First Grade finals aspirations after relinquishing a two-goal halftime lead to go down 3-2 away to Hurstville City Minotaurs. Matt Mazevski and Caleb Grace netted in the first period of play before time seemingly stood still as the home side completed their come back with 20 minutes still to play.

Flame enjoyed a tremendous opening 15 minutes which saw Mazevski and Bojan Caric ask the home side’s defence a number of questions. The best chance in this period saw Caric knock a sweet outside of the foot cross in for Mazevski who fired an effort straight at Alessandro Nigro.

It wouldn’t be long until South Coast made the positive start count with the side pulling ahead in the 21st minute. Julio Mushaba made a lung-busting effort to beat his defender and get to the byline before cutting the ball back to Mazevski who tucked the ball into the top left corner - kissing the bar on the way in.

The Minotaurs had their best chance of the opening half on the half-hour mark when Hassan Abdul was afforded space in the right of the box but his shot hit the outside netting. In the following three minutes, Flame had two quality chances to extend their advantage, first Caric flicked a deep Darren Jones free-kick wide before Connell was one on one with Nigro after a Mazevski through ball only for the teenager to push his shot to the right of the goal.

In the 40th minute, Flame made their dominance count when substitute Grace jinked into space on the edge of the area before his blasting shot beat the goalkeeper at his near post. A smart bit of play from the midfielder who had squandered a decent opportunity just moments earlier.

Minotaurs would have the final chance of the half in the 45th minute through Ketung Manyiel but his shot from just inside the box was blocked by Matt White meaning Flame would go into the sheds leading two goals to nil.

While the first half exhibited a number of positives, the second was close to a complete inverse with the home side pulling level inside 13 second-half minutes. In the 50th minute, Kushaal Ram walked through the heart of defence before knocking the ball home and eight minutes later Riad Agnache’s free-kick hit the crossbar, Alexi Brakatselos was the first to react and headed the ball into the net.

The comeback was complete in the 70th minute when Agnache looped an awkward looking shot from 30 metres out which managed to find the inside of the right post. In truth, Flame never truly looked like getting back into the match with a desperate long-range effort from Connell which went just over the bar in added on time the closest the side came to another goal.

The defeat leaves Flame locked into 10th place ahead of a must-win match at home to FC Gazy Auburn next Saturday night.

The under 20s also went down in the 5th versus 6th clash. Flame were without a number of key personnel and handful of under 18s players were forced to double up. South Coast trailed 2-0 at the break before going on to lose 5-1 with Johnny Vicoroski scoring his 10th of the season while Minotaurs’ Bojan Srbinovski scored a double. Despite the defeat, the side remains in 6th ahead of facing 11th placed FC Gazy next weekend.

The under 18s proved to be the brightest spark of the day with the youngsters securing a convincing 3-1 win. Kyle Paull put Flame ahead at halftime before Ethan Lehn and Harry Lloyd picked up their fourth goals of the season to round off perhaps the side’s best performance of the season. The win sees them leapfrog their opponents and they could finish the round as high as 8th pending Sunday’s results. A positive result next weekend against last-placed FC Gazy could put the side within touching distance of the top five.

 

Saturday 2 June 2018 @ St George Stadium

 

Hurstville City Minotaurs FC - 3 (RAM 50’, BRAKATSELOS 58’, AGNACHE 70’

 

South Coast Flame FC - 2 (MAZEVSKI 21’, GRACE 40’)

 

South Coast Flame FC lineup - Matt WHITE, Darren JONES, Djordje UZELAC, Andrew CHRISTIE, Martin THOMSON, Andrew BOVA, Wade WILTON, Matt MAZEVSKI, Louis CONNELL, Julio MUSHABA, Bojan CARIC

 

Subs - Colin HEAPY, Cameron HANSON (on for CARIC), Doug WOODIWISS (on for THOMSON), Caleb GRACE (on for UZELAC)

 

Coach - Paul ROBAARD

 

Report and photo by Dylan Arvela, on Twitter @dylanarvela