Manly United and Rockdale play out hard-fought draw

By Chris Curulli

Manly United and Rockdale Illinden FC were forced to settle for a share of the spoils as the NPL NSW Men’s 1 returned to Cromer Park with a tight 0-0 draw on Friday night.

 Clear-cut chances were few and far between for both sides throughout the match, with the majority of the contest unfolding in the middle third of the pitch.

Manly held the lion’s share of possession early but it was Rockdale who forged the clearer sights on goal during the first half with Nikola Taneski looking a threat on the counter-attack.

Dylan Mitchell was forced into the save of the game during first half stoppage time as he palmed away a sweetly struck long range effort from Illinden midfielder Patrick Savor.

During an even second half Taneski went closest for the visitors with a deflected free kick that settled on the roof of the net.

Manly created a handful of opportunities to snatch all three points through Kieren Paull, Marley Peterson and substitutes Jamie Glover and Luca Kmet – however none were able to break the resolve of Rockdale’s back-up goalkeeper David Bradasevic.

All in all, Brendan Cholakian was pleased with his team’s performance after their 19-week break.

“To be honest I thought we played some really good football,” the Manly midfielder said.

“From a possession point of view we knocked it around quite well and were patient.

“I thought we sort of dictated play for large spells but fair play to Rockdale, they defended really well, bunkered in and stopped us creating too many chances.

“Tonight was a good stepping stone so hopefully we can keep going and start creating more chances in the weeks to come.”

There was a solid (and socially distant) crowd in attendance at Cromer Park to mark the first of this season’s seven men’s senior home matches on a Friday night.

“Friday nights is really good opportunity for us to get out here in front of a good crowd before the weekends get too hectic for us players and the community,”

“We are obviously really appreciate everyone coming down tonight, it always makes a difference to having a good crowd here at Cromer Park.”

Manly are back down at Cromer Park this Friday as they host the newly-promoted Western Sydney Wanderers academy side.