Suns stung by costly turnovers

Matthew Galea

August 11 2014

Shepparton News

It was not for a lack of trying, but Goulburn Valley Suns could not find the key to unlock Northcote City’s defence on Saturday night.

The Suns went down 3-1 to last year’s Victorian Premier League premier on a night where turnovers proved costly at McEwen Reserve.

Liam Wooding got City’s night off to the perfect start when he scored in the third minute of play with a delightful strike from outside the box which left a full-stretch Phil Petrovski in goal without a chance of saving.

Simon Colosimo popped up with his first Suns goal two minutes later to level the scores after some good work from Ben Clarke down the left flank won the home side a free-kick.

Set pieces always looked the most likely route to goal for the Suns for the remainder of the game with the Suns struggling to click moving forward.

Northcote’s Aaron Ward proved chief tormenter in City’s midfield, with the busy youngster working hard to break down the Suns’ play in midfield.

Bryan Vanega and Daniel Chaabani were typically busy in the middle of the park, but were uncharacteristically poor in the pass.

Joey Hogarty provided some flashes of quality playing behind Craig Carley — who lacked any real service in his return from suspension — but struggled to get into the game on a consistent basis.

Defensively, the Suns held up well despite the concession of three goals and City had to produce some real magic to break the deadlock.

Marino Gasparis produced that magic when City was awarded a free-kick just outside the area, curling the ball majestically into the top corner.

Vanega almost returned the favour at the other end with a beautiful free-kick of his own, but his curled slightly closer to the keeper than the top corner.

Clarke was lost to a hamstring injury minutes later with Geordie Lelliot coming on for his senior debut.

Northcote wrapped up the result early in the second half after 49 minutes when Wade Dekker put the finishing touches on a brilliant team move.

Suns coach David Davkovski rued his side’s poor passing on the night, but said all his players shared the blame for the defeat.

‘‘We’ve turned it over 14-times-plus in the second half from defence to midfield, so are they a better side? I don’t know,’’ Davkovski said.

‘‘A couple of the boys lost it four or five times, but that’s football.

‘‘I asked at the end of the game, ‘who stuffed up today?’ and they’ve all put their hand up.’’