Manly United defeat MWFA Select 4-2
By Tobias Canning
Last night Manly United defeated the Men’s MWFA Select team 4-2 in an extremely entertaining match at Cromer Park.
Manly attacker Dejan Pandurevic had an early chance when he beat a couple of defenders in a sign of things to come. Shortly after CC Strikers defender Nick Parker unfortunately gave away a penalty when he fouled Manly United striker Ben Koop. Pandurevic stood up with ease and converted it into the bottom left-hand corner of the net to make it 1-0.
The weather turned sour quickly after that, but Koop continued to thrive, finding the net himself twice in quick succession. Koop’s made it 2-0 with a relatively easy opportunity on the 31-minute mark.
Only three minutes later, Brookvale winger Josh Ciabatti took advantage of a sublime assist from CC Strikers attacker Luke Curnow and smashed it into the back of the net from close range which brought the margin back to 2-1.
Forty-three minutes in, after a fine first-up save from MWFA and Brookvale goalkeeper Luke Femia, Koop cleaned up the scraps to make it 3-1 and claim his second of the game.
To help close the half, CC Strikers and MWFA defender Jim Van Weeren made a potential goal-saving tackle to keep his team in the game.
Moments after the start of the second half, the man who once scored nine goals from just 14 games in a season for Manly, Richie Cardozo, converted a brilliant free kick with a sweetly hit strike.
In the 82nd minute, MWFA Select got some just reward for all their hard work and play in the second half as BTH’s Michael Reece scored to make it 4-2.
Other key moments included Koop being denied a hat-trick for offside and Curnow having a strong shot palmed off in the 65th minute. Taylor Cahill was also quite unlucky not to have a goal to his name as well, as his shot went just ever so wide towards the end of the match.
For the MWFA team, Cahill was strong throughout with his distribution and Ciabatti’s runs were damaging as they caused the Manly defence some headaches.
Manly United are in action again this Saturday at Cromer Park against the Northbridge FC Bulls, kick-off is 7pm.
