2022 NSW NPL Women’s Wrap – Round 13

We hope you stayed dry over the weekend! The extreme weather in Sydney caused three NSW NPL games to be postponed, but we were still fortunate enough to see some high quality action in the other three matches.

Our featured game took us to a wet and windy Valentine Sports Park for the game between Football NSW Institute and Blacktown Spartans.

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Football NSW Institute v Blacktown Spartans

It was raining in western Sydney, and it was raining goals in the first half at Valentine Sports Park! Three long range Institute goals – two for Mary Stanic-Floody and one for Sienna Saveska – were enough to earn the points, meaning that a spectacular strike from Spartans stalwart Ashlie Crofts would only be consolation for the team in orange.

In FNSW Institute’s last game (a 3-3 draw with Manly United), Saveska scored a hat trick, so it was no surprise when she was involved in the game’s first real chance on six minutes, playing a quick one-two with Daniella Naeimi and firing over the bar from 25 yards. Three minutes later, the Spartans had their first shot when skipper Rosie Galea crossed and picked out Tiarne Flavin for a volley which went wide of the goal.

Saveska impressed with her off-the-ball movement, constantly finding pockets of space between the Spartans midfield and defence. In the 17th minute, she had another shot from outside the area, drawing a fine save from Spartans shotstopper Anna Norton.

However, it was one of Saveska’s teammates who would open the scoring. On 25 minutes, Institute made a nuisance of themselves at a corner kick and when the ball fell to Stanic-Floody, her left-footed strike took a deflection on its way to the bottom corner, leaving Norton with no chance.

Stanic-Floody’s opener may have been aided by a piece of good fortune, but there was nothing lucky about her second goal. Just two minutes after going 1-0 up, Institute doubled their lead when Stanic-Floody collected Naeimi’s layoff and found the top corner from 25 yards, putting her team firmly in control of the contest.

Spartans had to respond, and around the half hour mark Galea found Maja Markovski with a couple of pinpoint crosses, but she was unable to hit the target with either of those headed efforts on goal.

Then it was Saveska’s turn to demonstrate her long range shooting prowess. In the 41st minute, the talented lefty collected possession after Naeimi broke up a Spartans passing move and blasted the ball past Norton to make it 3-0.

However, Spartans would pull a goal back in first half stoppage time. Alana Murphy started the move with an accurate long pass to Crofts, who made space and smashed the ball into the top corner – meaning the first half had four goals scored from outside the area!

That goal seemed to give the Spartans momentum as the game headed into the second period, and Crofts could have had another just after the break when Bryleeh Henry touched Markovski’s cross into her path, but this time her effort was wayward.

Spartans were starting to take control of the play, and Institute shotstopper Tahlia Franco had to be alert. In the 64th minute, Tiarne Flavin sent Henry sprinting towards goal, but Franco got the angles right to make a one on one save. Five minutes later, Franco came up big again after a couple of smart headers from Galea and Markovski created a chance for Crofts.

Then on 72 minutes, Murphy’s shot was deflected towards Crofts and she struck the underside of the crossbar with a fierce shot, but it wouldn’t have counted anyway as she was offside.

That was as close as Spartans would get to another goal. Institute deserve a lot of credit for the way they defended in the closing stages, especially when you consider the strong wind they were running into and the number of set pieces that Spartans won. In the final seconds, Institute could even have had a fourth goal after Norton picked up a backpass – the indirect free kick was laid off to Siena Arrarte, who was denied by a goal line clearance from Jordan Jasnos.

A great win for Institute was made even more impressive by the number of players that were coming off an 11 day Junior Matildas training camp in Brisbane. Eight players from the Institute matchday squad were selected for that camp, and some players appeared to be on restricted minutes – for example, Stanic-Floody only played the first half and Saveska played less than an hour.

This result means that Institute move up to tenth place and Spartans stay in sixth. Elsewhere, Rola Badawiya’s perfect hat trick took Sydney Uni to victory over Emerging Jets, while Spirit and Macarthur Rams couldn’t be separated at the Arctic Circle (a.k.a. Christie Park).

Football NSW Institute 3 (Stanic-Floody 25’ 27’, Saveska 41’)
Blacktown Spartans 1 (Crofts 45+1’)

Football NSW Institute: Tahlia Franco, Amalia Plummer (Tegan Bertolissio 71’), Gemma Ferris, Libby Morris, Ella Abdul-Massih (Megan Mifsud 46’), Maya Fernandez (Siena Arrarte 81’), Isabella Chidiac, Amy Chessari (c), Mary Stanic-Floody (Shay Hollman 46’), Sienna Saveska (Anika Stajcic 57’), Daniella Naeimi

Unused sub: Aimee Hall
Yellow card: Shay Hollman 57’

Blacktown Spartans: Anna Norton, Jordan Jasnos, Annie Daczko, Keisha Allen, Tanya Borazio, Alana Murphy, Tiarne Flavin (Kate Duffy 85’), Rosie Galea (c), Maja Markovski, Ashlie Crofts, Bryleeh Henry (Michelle Dal Bon 76’)

Unused subs: Makayla Kent, Ashley Calvar, Lisa Fressard, Breanna Buccini

Around the Grounds
Emerging Jets 1-4 Sydney University
NWS Spirit 0-0 Macarthur Rams

APIA Leichhardt v Northern Tigers, Illawarra Stingrays v Bankstown City and Sydney Olympic v Manly United were all postponed.

Table

Read more of our NSW NPL coverage here.