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ROUND 10 MATCH REPORT PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Preston Lions have taken all three points away from Chaplin Reserve against a Sunshine Georgies team under the guidance of new coach John Markovski to leap into the top six thanks to a 51st minute winner by Zoran Petrevski, while the second consecutive loss leaves Sunshine entrenched in the bottom four.

SUNSHINE GEORGE CROSS 0
  PRESTION LIONS 1
( PETREVSKI 51' )

LINE UP: JOHN, AZZOPARDI, OPAZO (GREECHAN 67'), ZILIC, KALMAR, CINI, TRPCEVSKI, MAGNACCA, SALLEY, FALZON (GILMOUR 58'), DELIC. SUBS NOT USED: FIORENZA, NAPOLI, SIMSEK

It had been a week of sweeping change at Chaplin Reserve with previous coach Joe Montemurro handing in his resignation following the Monday night defeat to Whittlesea at Epping Stadium. The Georgies board acted swiftly in appointing ex Georgie and Socceroo Markovski to the head coaching position.

As is so often the case with a new coach at the post with all the players keen to impress, the visiting coach in Goran
Lozanovski would have been aware that this was always going to be a tight and tough encounter against a wounded home team. Also since 2005, Preston has only come away from Chaplin Reserve with a single point in a 2-2 draw that year, and a humiliating 4-1 defeat in 2006.

From the outset the game appeared to be one of those affairs where there would not be many goals, and one strike would do the trick.

Preston opened the better with Steven Pace dominating the midfield and the running support of Marinos Gasparis and Zoran Petrevski causing headaches for the Sunshine defenders. Also the strength of target man Johnny Sapasovski was of concern also. Long range strikes by Pace on the quarter hour and 5 minutes before half time was a friendly reminder of the threat that Preston posed.

The match was evenly balanced as the Sunshine attack also kept the Preston defence in check, as a Stanko Zilic strike from distance forced a good save from keeper Lou Acevski, as well a number of well taken set pieces from both Vasko Trpcevski and Anthony Magnacca around the penalty area forcing a Preston defence led by Serdar Pir to dig in and clear its lines time and time again. A well taken curling free kick found the head of Jonas Salley drifting in from defence but the Ivorian's header went wide in the 35th minute.

The second half, began in a flurry of attacking moves by both teams, and it was only 2 minutes in to the half after a mazey run through midfield from young defender Matthew Cini, that he found himself in the area in a one on one situation with the keeper. However Cini's strike, failed to beat the experience and good positioning of Acevski.

This was to be the home teams best chance of the day, and they were made to pay the ultimate price for not capitalising, when four minutes later in the 51st minute, a Sunshine ball across the face of goal in attack was intercepted by the Preston defence, and with the Sunshine midfielders caught committed forward, the Lions launched a swift and classic counter attack on the break. A quality through ball by
Marinos Gasparis gave Zoran Petrevski every opportunity to score, and this is exactly what Petrevski did with a finish from just inside the area beating keeper Marttin John and going in to the net off the upright.

Markovski attempted to inject life into the Sunshine team in introducing Brett Gilmour in to the midfield and some height into attack with the entry into the game of striker Chris Greechan. The Georgies came close to an equaliser minutes after the Preston goal with a dipping strike from distance from Dusko Delic beating Acevski but going just wide of the upright.

As the game approached its finish, an increasingly desperate home team employed the long ball, abandoning its passing game in search of an equaliser. However the Preston defence closed up shop and despite a cramp injury to Izzy Erdogan which forced the defender off, the visiting Lions stood tall and firm in defence.

As the home team Sunshine had the greater amount of possession in the second half, but was not able to capitalise where it counted, in the final third of the park and on the score sheet.

STATISTICS

CORNERS: 5 3
FOULS: 9 12
SHOTS ON TARGET: 5 3
SHOTS OFF TARGET: 3 3
OFFSIDES: 2 0
YELLOW CARDS: 3 0
RED CARDS: 0

0

YELLOW CARDS: ZILIC 52', JOHN 70', KALMAR 88'


 
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