Image: Victor Soto
An impressive Liam Boland brace inspired a 10-man Green Gully to a narrow 3-2 win against Avondale on a damp Knights Stadium surface this afternoon.
Having freshly qualified for the FFA Cup knockouts midweek, Arthur Papas’ men went into this match with high morale, while Avondale were out to redeem themselves after having all three points snatched in injury time last round against Hume City.
The contest commenced rather sluggish, with a tight battle in midfield occurring for the first 10 minutes – neither team able to initiate any attacks into their respective final third.
George Lambadaridis produced the most promising attempt yet, when his 14th minute effort from the edge of the box was almost deflected around Chris May, with the custodian’s sharp reflexes latching onto the wayward ball.
At the opposite end, Jonatan Germano initiated a 26th minute solo run which saw him beat numerous defenders, although his shot at goal sailed over the crossbar.
Liam Boland broke the deadlock 10 minutes from half time after a passage of build-up play around the box fell to his feet, as he drove the ball into the top net.
A half time substitution saw inform defender Nick Symeoy replaced for Yitay Towns, the replacement proving its worth almost instantly as the home side were rewarded with a penalty after a late Yohei Iwasaki challenge.
The fullbacks second caution saw him receive his marching orders as Germano slotted the 50th minute spot kick away to the opposite end of Rani Dowisha’s dive.
Boland almost bagged his second in the 59th minute as he attempted a chip over Chris May from just over the halfway line – the ball sailing a few centimetres over the crossbar as May was off his line.
Only nine minutes later did Boland attain his second after a counter attack saw the striker slot the ball around May from close range.
Boland then set up Kliment Taseski in the 81st minute for a close replica of Boland’s second – another counter attack which saw Taseski beat May on a 1v1 after placing the ball around the keepers legs.
Avondale piled pressure onto the Gully technical area when they drew a goal back after Phillip Riccobene’s effort was turned into his own net by Callum Richardson – only five minutes from full time.
Five minutes of tense injury time nearly saw Anthony Barbieri’s men draw level after Omar Ammache made a pocket of space inside the box for himself, although the resulting effort was placed just wide of the left-hand upright.
Gully manager Arthur Papas praised his team’s sheer determination to win, explaining the extent as to how exhausted some of his players are as a result of the match.
“[The team is] exhausted, they worked their arses off today, you could see that was just a great team spirit, a great work rate,” Papas said
“I got guys in there that were struggling to sing the song that’s how tired they are. But i’ll tell you what, it’s always easier to wake up on a Sunday morning after a Saturday like today.”
Papas then hailed the dominant display by his outfit, highlighting the areas which he knew his team succeeded in shutting down Avondale.
“[It was an] absolutely deserved victory today, the first half [was] very dominant,” Papas stated.
“[It was] very well organised, [we]knew when to press and knew when not to press, [we] knew that they play a very expansive game and they’re gonna be open and transition.
The manager expressed his concern regarding his team’s performance towards the latter end of the half, although he then praised his team for bouncing back despite being undermanned.
“I thought the last five minutes [of the first half] we didn’t deal with a couple of things well, maybe that led into the second half,” Papas said.
“Obviously to go [down to] 10 men so early to a penalty, concede, and go back to 1-1, it just shows you a lot about how important the organisation is, how important spirit is in the group and how important it is to be able to play to your strengths.
“At that stage we’re [down to] 10 men, so you can’t be expected to open up too much, but we were very organised and we were still able to score two goals with 10 men against them.
“Credit to the players, [they were] just fantastic to be honest.”
Papas went on to criticise the FFV’s structure regarding FFA Cup and NPL fixtures, highlighting the contrast to the likes of NPL New South Wales, who have more flexibility regarding midweek fixtures, also complaining about the disadvantage of shorter rest periods compared to opponents.
“[Having] more games is a problem, because in the end, unless they [FFV] want to adjust the way the league is structured, to give Victorian teams the chance to actually have a bit more breathing space,” Papas stated
“You see the way it’s done in Sydney, there’s an actual allocated round on the weekend where they have a week off the league, but at the moment we don’t have it here.
“I don’t think we’ve been done any favours by the FFV to be honest, because to back up 72 hours after such a tough game Wednesday night, and Avondale, I think they had themselves eight days to prepare for this game, and we’ve had ourselves three days.
“We only had one [training] session between games, but that was enough to get some good organisation and just an approach of what we wanted to do today, and the boys were brilliant, they executed it.”
The boss gave an insight into the current team spirit in the change rooms, saying “the spirit is high regardless, just because you lose a game it doesn’t mean you drop your head and if you win a game you don’t get too far ahead of yourself, you gotta back up every game in this league.”
Green Gully have failed to qualify for the FFA Cup national stage in its short history – 2014 saw the side face defeat from Melbourne Knights in Round 6, while 2015 saw Gully fall short to Kingston City in extra time of Round 5.
Papas highlighted what it means to have the seven-time Victorian champions back on the national stage again – although he explained how he didn’t expect everything to unfold like it did – given the tough fixture his outfit were drawn to.
“A club like Green Gully needs to be playing in the final rounds,” Papas said
“Did [we] expect it all to happen so quickly? Not necessarily, because we’ve had a tough draw. We had Heidelberg, we had Bulleen, we played tough teams and you know, they’re all as ambitious as us to be in the [knockouts].
“We had to forget about [being in the final four] very quickly because if you take your eye off the league, you’ll fall down very quickly.”
Man-of-the-Match Liam Boland also gave everyone an insight into his secret as to how he scored his brace this afternoon.
“I got rid of the old boots and bought some new ones this week, i’ll put it on them,” Boland joked.
“It was about time I scored from open play to be honest, i’m pretty happy with that but hopefully I can continue to do that for the rest of the year.”
Both outfits have tough fixtures on the road, with Anthony Barbieri’s men facing a Bentleigh side who have rued their numerous missed chances to steal top spot, while Green Gully travel to Olympic Village against a Heidelberg who are fresh off a disappointing 2-1 loss to Pascoe Vale.
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Green Gully 3 (Boland 36′, 68′, Taseski 81′) defeated Avondale FC 2 (Germano 49′(p), Ammache 86′) at Knights Stadium [HT 0:1]
Green Gully: 23. Rani DOWISHA (GK) 2. Matthew REID 3. Yohei IWASAKI 4. Daniel JONES 5. Rodrigo VARGAS (C) 7. Tomas MURPHY 8. George LAMBADARIDIS 11. Evan CHRISTODOULOU 9. Anthony RAGUSA 16. Kliment TASESKI 38. Liam BOLAND
Substitutes: 1. Sebastian MATTEI 6. Callum RICHARDSON 13. Yoch BOL 18. Oner KUCUK 14. Luke WALKER
Avondale FC: 1. Christopher MAY (GK) 5. Jeffrey FLEMING 6. Anthony STRANO 8. Massimo MURDOCCA 10. Jonatan GERMANO 11. Jem BERKANT 13. Yitay TOWNS 17. Phillip RICCOBENE 19. James BROWN 23. Francesco STELLA 31. Michele CRAZIA
Substitutes: 2. Nicholas SYMEOY 9. Oleksiy KHRAPKO 12. Mathew SANDERS 16. Omar AMMACHE 40. Evan MARKOGIANNAKIS