Suns shine in impressive debut showing - March 17 2014
Suns shine in impressive debut showing
SCORES: Goulburn Valley Suns 0 lt Oakleigh Cannons 1 (Piemonte 4’)
March 17 2014
Shepparton News
The Cannons settled more quickly and could have doubled their advantage when Goran Zoric blazed just over from close range and Phil Petrovski had to be alert to deny Foster, after he was slipped through one-on-one.
Stipo Andrijasevic fired the Suns’ first shot on target, chesting down Kalafatis’ raking diagonal ball and volleying into the arms of Cannons keeper John Honos, before lone striker Craig Carley forced Honos into a smart stop at his near post.
Suns keeper Petrovski then expertly denied a busy Zoric low to his left to see out the half.
Wilkes brought on 11th hour signing Rudi Saglam for Fahed Alghazaly at half-time and the substitute almost had an immediate impact, slipping through Carley, who drew a save out of Honos and while the rebound appeared to strike the hand of a Cannons defender the home side’s appeals were waved away by the referee.
Ben Clarke was lively down the right and fashioned the Suns’ best chance of the game, which was somehow kept out by some desperate last-ditch defending.
Cannons coach Miron Bleiberg was full of praise for the Suns, who he conceded were much more competitive than he expected.
‘‘I’m happy about the three points, but it was very hard,’’ Bleiberg said.
‘‘Credit to the local side, they made things tough for us. I thought because of the quality and experience that we have and the fact (the Suns) are a new side in the competition it would be easy and if you asked me after the first 10 minutes I would tell you the same.
‘‘But we did the mistake you shouldn’t do against an ambitious side like this once you’ve scored a goal and took our foot off the pedal.
‘‘They were shell-shocked in the beginning then they grew in confidence and the more we let them into the game the better they became.
‘‘I can see they will give a tough time to a lot of teams, not only us.’’
Each of the Suns’ back four held their own, Hernan Espindola was tidy in the middle of the park and Carley worked his socks off up top.
Alghazaly was taken for scans on a shoulder injury.
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