Saints March On To Round 3 As Hawks Crash
- Report and photos: Ian Judd
- May 10, 2017
- 3 min read
Mt Gravatt 1 (Henny 41')
St George Willawong 4 (Grecl 44', 69', 80'; Skavo 76')
HT 1-1
Played at: St George's Park
After a late switch in venues from a saturated Dittmer Park to St George's Park; St George Willawong went through to the next round of the Pig 'N' Whistle Canale Cup with a come from behind 4-1 success over a second string Mt Gravatt side, courtesy of a hat trick from David Grecl. San Henny, returning from a spell out of the game, opened the scoring for the Hawks on 41 minutes after neatly side stepping his opponent in the box and drilling a low shot beyond Saints keeper Marko Petrovic. But the Hawks lead was short-lived when Grecl netted when put through one on one with Mt Gravatt keeper Lachlan Buckingham from Sanjin Skavo's defense splitting pass. The tall striker making no mistake with a precise lob over Buckingham. Grecl was guilty of a missing an open goal midway through what was a competitive but error strewn first half. Nikola Kataric's superb lobbed ball to the far post found Grecl unmarked with the goal at his mercy, but from just a few yards out, he inexplicably struck the post when it looked simpler to score. Both sides went into the break level, which was indicative of an even contest for the first 45 minutes. The second term came to life early with it being Hawks turn to spurn a guilt edged chance. Daiki Hieda picked out Nick Carson unmarked at the far post but the Hawk's number nine managed to crash the ball off the post and flash agonisingly across goal when well placed to score. A string of fine saves from Buckingham, who was last season's Save of the Year winner, kept St George at bay after Kataric, Stonjic and Grecl all tested the Hawks gloveman, but all of his good work was undone after the hour mark, when he advanced out of his box for a through ball, completely missing it and allowing Grecl to pick up the ball and virtually walk it in to the back of the net to give the Saints the lead for the first time in the game. The tie was put beyond the Hawks minutes later from a neat move involving Kataric playing substitute Brodie Belden down the right side who delivered a teasing cross in for Skavo to latch onto and angle his shot across Buckingham into the far corner.
St George put the icing on the cake moments later when Skavo turned provider with a near post cross that Grecl guided past Buckingham to round out the scoring and earn him the match ball. Despite Mick Matthews fielding his reserves for this tie, they competed well for the best part of an hour before finally capitulating late on. It was an obvious tactic for St George to play in long balls behind their opponents for Grecl and Kataric to chase, especially given the number of offside calls against them. Ultimately a more precise passing game reaped reward for them in the end as a parochial St George crowd were pleased with the outcome. Mt Gravatt will turn their focus to Capital League 1 and a tricky away trip to North Star this weekend. For St George, they have their huge St George's Day celebrations taking place this Sunday with Jimboomba United the visitors to St George's Park and what is likely to be a large and vocal crowd.
Coaches Reactions:
Bojan Vilic - St George Willawong: "It was a tough game. Obviously they didn't come here with their first team but their reserves would have been very motivated for the game. It was good to see our boys getting on top of them in the second half and progressing to the next round." Mick Matthews - Mt Gravatt: "We played out reserves tonight apart from San Henny who's returning from a long spell away from the game.It was an opportunity for the reserves here tonight and they played well for the first half. Second half was a bit disappointing though and the young kids will take away some positives."
FB Media Player Of The Match: Anthony Sarramea - St George Willawong.
Not often the hat trick hero doesn't get the player of the match from us, but Sarramea stood out with his display at centre back. The Frenchman possesses the skill and composure to compete at any level in Brisbane and looked a class above in this one.
Team line-ups
Mt Gravatt: Bukingham (gk), Avarakis, Carson (Sutherland 85'), Celebicann (Kani 62'), Crawford, Dunne, Henny, Hieda, Morcus, Pickham, Williams (Sehnoun 75').
Subs: Wanders (rgk), Kani, Sehnoun, Sutherland, McGookin.
St George Willawong: Petrovic (gk), Burke, Grecl, Kataric, Radmilovic, Rados, Sarramea, Skavo, Stojcic (Graovac 77'), Symons (Beldon 46'), Zonjic (Hersi 81').Subs: Dordic (rgk), Beaman, Belden, Graovac, Hersi. Referee: John Vasiliadis
