David Cox

Floreat Athena blitzed league-leaders Sorrento to throw the league championship wide open.

Athena are now only one point away from top spot and with Perth having knocked off Inglewood 2-1 on Sunday afternoon, the race is really hotting up.

With four weeks of the regular season remaining Floreat coach Michael Roki has only one thing on his mind:

“We want to be first past the post. The finals at the moment are only two games and for me a bit of a non-event. It’s an extra thing to play for. The league season shows the greatest consistency of a squad. That’s what we are going for.”

His team was certainly consistent today as they pummeled Sorrento, racing into a 3-0 lead after 23 minutes and being unlucky in not adding a fourth before the interval.

As a result Roki was understandably delighted:

“This was a really important game for us and to get three early goals was great. The boys have learnt to maintain their discipline and they stuck to the match plan for the full 90 minutes.”

“The club is so, so proud of the boys. A great day for us,” added Club President Peter Koulizos.

The action started off at a frenetic pace and it wasn’t limited to pitch side as ugly scenes emerged from within the main stand.  An internal struggle between Floreat supporters had all bystanders staring in amazement. Thankfully pitch side officials raced to defuse the situation.

While focus was taken away from the field, the home side managed to break the deadlock.

Daniel Neiderberger brilliantly nodded a cross from the left goalward and Adam Bachillor was on hand to turn the ball over the line.

Two minutes later the action swung to the other end as Stuart Montgomery wove into the box before being fouled clumsily by Ante Kovacevic. Unfortunately Steve McDonald tragically wasted the penalty. Topping the ball, the effort spun feebly wide of Vas Vujacic’s goal.
 
After 21 minutes, McDonald was made to pay as Bachillor swung in a vicious corner that ‘keeper Neil Young should have dealt with.

He misjudged it and, free at the far post, with the simplest of tasks to nod home was the smallest man on the pitch, Paul Vatistas.

Bachillor was running rings around the visitors.

Good work from him again two minutes later and it was three. Kamikaze defending from The Gulls saw the midfielder play the ball across the top of the box to Brad Scott who amazingly had time and space to take a touch and fire home leaving three lunging defenders in a heap.

The Sorrento back four were clearly missing cup hero Stuart Banks, ruled out through injury. Bran Mikulic was giving Danny Cain a torrid time and McDonald at centre-back was struggling to adjust from his recent appearances in the forward line.

It could have been four before the half hour mark had it not been for Klaver’s flag. A collision between Young and Mikulic saw the loose ball turned over the line. The clash leaving Mikulic with a face covered in blood, an incident that would have repercussions after the final whistle.

Sorrento was grateful for the interval, making a tactical switch in an attempt to get back into the match. Michael Ord replaced midfielder Brodie Martin and moved to centre-back, allowing McDonald to form a three-pronged attack with Montgomery and skipper Todd Harnwell.

Unfortunately for Ord and his teammates he was back on the bench within half an hour.

After receiving a needless booking for dissent, a mere two minutes later the referee adjudged that Ord again spoke out of turn and as a consequence was immediately ordered to leave the field.

Floreat had been quite superb in their defending up until this point and their opponents had rarely threatened to mount a comeback.

Now up against ten it was simply a matter of seeing the game out for the final quarter of an hour

The last act of the match saw Sorrento reduced to nine. James Morgan seeing red, a decision that added to Sorrento coach Steve Neville’s frustrations:

“If referee’s keep on like this it is going to kill the game. The squads aren’t big enough."

“You’ve seen James make two good tackles there and he’s booked him both times."

“We weren’t at the races. Penalties are missed but we never got going first half. You can’t give a side of this quality a three-goal start. Whether it’s something to do with Wednesday night or too many games I don’t know. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb.”

The action didn’t stop there as tempers threatened to boil over following the earlier incident involving Young. The two teams and respective supporters locking together on the journey back to the changing room.

Sorrento don’t have it any easier next week as they host Perth SC whilst Athena travel to Cockburn.

SQUADS

Floreat Athena: V.Vujacic, J.Madaschi, A.Bachillor, B.Mikulic (M.Vujacic 84’), J.Migas, P.Vastistas, J.Pavlovic, A.Kovacevic, B.Scott, D.Neiderberger (R.Insurralde 81’), D.Appelgren, (not used: A.Dunn (GK), J.Smith, T.Georgiou).

Yellow Cards: B.Scott 58’, A.Bachillor 83’

Sorrento: N.Young, D.Cain (C.O’Connell 66’), S.Kilkelly, J.Morgan, B.Marthin (M.Ord 46’), T.Harnwell, S.Montgomery, L.Flatt, S.McDonald, G.Thomas, S.Neville, (not used: A.Cochrane (GK), J.Trpevski, D.Gurovski).

Yellow Cards: D.Cain 2’, J.Morgan 54’, M.Ord 71’, S.Kilkelly 76’, S.McDonald 76’

Red Cards: M.Ord 73’ (Second bookable offence), J.Morgan 90 (+2) (Second bookable offence)

STATISTICS

Full Time: 3-0 Half Time: 3-0

Goals: A.Bachillor 6’, P.Vastistas 15’, B.Scott 28’

Referee: S.Gregory