Suns on rise, but Sharks have final say

Matthew Galea

April 15 2014

Shepparton News

Goulburn Valley Suns have walked away from their fourth consecutive home game without a point to show for their efforts, despite a good performance.

If last week’s game against Heidelberg United was an unmitigated disaster, then Saturday night’s 2-1 loss to Port Melbourne Sharks was at least a much improved performance.

Local hero Frankie Lagana made his debut for the Suns, anchoring midfield alongside Daniel Chaabani, who also made his first start, while Cody Sellwood and Zac Paraskevas came into the team starting at left and right full-back, respectively.

Lagana’s presence and ability was made immediately apparent and he impressed throughout the 60 minutes he played.

Chaabani also featured prominently with his work-rate and ability in the tackle, which made the Suns much harder to break down than they were the week prior.

Still, it was the Sharks who struck first at the end of the first half through Nick Tzoulis, who was found unmarked at the far post by Kevin Baniff after some nice hold up play following a lovely through ball from ex-Melbourne Heart prodigy Kamal Ibrahim.

The Suns improved dramatically in the second half to take complete control of the game, working the ball well into the final third, but failed to find the killer pass on more than one occasion.

The best chance fell to Craig Carley when he was played in by Kristian Sarkies, but he wasn’t able to convert despite rounding the keeper as his strike, taken under considerable pressure from a tight angle, hit the post.

Carley righted that wrong minutes later though, when a brilliant pass from centre-back Naum Sekulovski split the Sharks’ midfield and defence in two to find the Englishman, who dinked the goalkeeper with his first touch.

The Suns continued to dominate, but as legs tired in the dying minutes the Sharks were able to make one last push, and as was the case against Ballarat Red Devils, a late corner brought them undone.

The Suns cleared the corner, only for it to fall to substitute Alessandro Venezia, who lashed it home from 18-plus m .

For Suns coach Melvyn Wilkes, it was a cruel end to a good performance.

‘‘We were far the better team for long periods of the game, but we’ve got to be more clinical in front of goal,’’ Wilkes said.

‘‘We’re creating the chances, we scored from open play and had them on the back foot, so I honestly believe that this could potentially be the turning point.

‘‘This is the platform to build on. I can live with the result if the performance is there, but it’s still disappointing.’’

Wilkes said he felt everyone pulled their weight, but saved particular praise for Andrijasevic and Sellwood, while Lagana also impressed on debut.

Sharks coach Eric Vassiladis said his side was fortunate to take the points.

‘‘It was clearly a game of two halves . . . they really came at us after half-time,’’ Vassiladis said.

‘‘In the end, I think we snatched the points, but we showed that when we’re brave and play the game we want to play, we can really control games.’’