A little ray of Suns-hine

July 21 2014

Shepparton News

Goulburn Valley Suns provided soccer with a smile on Saturday night.

The Suns offered a strong home crowd exciting entertainment as they hung on grimly during the final stages to seal only their second win of the season against Green Gully.

Goulburn Valley certainly came to play and on the back of some scintillating counter-attacking play, skipped out to a 3-0 lead by half-time, thanks to goals courtesy of Frankie Lagana, Craig Carley and Bryan Vanega.

The home side drew first blood when Carley whipped in a lovely corner which found the head of one of the smallest players on the park in Lagana, who forced the ball over the line with a second header after Gully keeper Kieran Gonzales saved his initial attempt.

Carley turned from provider to goal-scorer three minutes later, taking full advantage of a brilliant corner from Vanega to nod home from close range.

Vanega made it three when he capped a fine team move with a cracking volley at the far post from a Ben Clarke cross, sparking celebrations the whole team got involved in.

But that plain sailing in the first half soon got complicated after the break when Carley was sent off for a suspected elbow at Adam Petko.

Gully made the most of its extra-man advantage minutes later, scoring two quick goals through Andy Vargas and then Ratip Cileli setting up a tense final 25 minutes for the Suns.

Some super defending from Simon Colosimo and Naum Sekulovski — who produced a magnificent goalline save — as well as some brilliant goalkeeping from Phil Petrovski ensured the Suns prevailed.

Coach David Davkovski said a relaxed approach had proven a winning recipe.

‘‘We’ve got very good players, it’s just a matter of getting their heads right and keeping them happy. They’ve all got smiles on their faces and if they’re not happy they’re not going to play well,’’ Davkovski said.

‘‘My message to the boys is simple, I just get them buzzing and tell them it’s about the one percenters.’’

The addition of Clarke to the team was the real difference though, and from the first minute his added pace and trickery gave the home side a potency going forward it severely lacked last week.

Davkovski admitted to feeling some nerves as the minutes wound down.

‘‘After Carley got sent off I was extremely nervous, but that happens and the boys responded well,’’ Davkovski said.

‘‘It was a game of two halves and I’m not happy with the second half, but we got the win, so we’ll just enjoy this and we’ll talk about the other stuff later.’’

See more on the Suns in tomorrow’s News.