1995/1996 Season Round 05 Results written by Thomas Esamie
Played (27/10/1995), Brandon Park Referee : Con Diomis, Crowd : 2,980
Wollongong City Brett Hughes, Billy Gjakovski, Angelo Petratos, Martin Bourke, Steve Forshaw, Stuart McLaren, Matthew Horsley, Lupcho Naumovski (Mineo Bonetig 74), Tony Perinich, Colin Luff (George Jolevski 82), Richard Lloyd Goals : Perinich 33, Colin Luff 50	2	-	0	South Melbourne Dean Anastadiadis, Alex Kuzmanovic, Con Anthopoulos, Steve Panopoulos, Vaughan Coveny (sent off 70), Paul Trimboli, Ivan Kelic, Ajim Sherifovski (Sasa Nikolic 70), Bill Damianos (Steve Mangos 61), Craig Lewis, Mike Petersen
The winless Wollongong club was expected to fare no better against a youthful but strong South Melbourne side. After some forceful early exchanges in which crossbars were hit and keepers flung themselves wide it was an error from Mike Petersen, from a long clearing punt by Gjakovski, when he tried to back head the ball to his keeper which provided Perinich with an easy passage to goal and the 1-0 lead. If the first goal was oppertunistic the second was poetic. Petratos intercepted the ball in his own half and switched play to the right for Naumovski who spotted Luff's run through the middle. Luff then calmly lobbed a stranded keeper to complete a memorable movement with a goal and effectively end the match. A nasty stomping incident saw Vaughan Coveny sent off and that makes a nice change for Wollongong who have been used to playing with 10 men rather than against them.
Played (28/10/1995), Bruce Stadium Referee : Shaun Micaleff, Crowd : 3,920
Canberra Cosmos Steve Mautone, Paul Dee, Joe Gagetti (Michael Garcia 79), Richard Watson, Jason Dunn, Paul Wade, Norman Kelly, Marko Perinovic, Lachlan Armstrong, Willie Hastie, Tony Lemezina (James Baxter 68) Goals : Kelly 52, Perinovic 57	2	-	3	UTS Olympic George Bouhoutsos, Dave Barrett, Nick Orlic, Adam Ciantar, Peter Tsekenis, Kimon Taliadoros (George Sorras 79), Norman Tome, Branko Milosevic (Walter Ardone 68), Nick Meredith, Milan Blagojevic, Joe Bacak (Elias Augerinos 68) Goals : Meredith 30, Augerinos 77, Tome 85
Another rainy Canberra evening saw a, dare I say it, rampant Olympic dominate the first half but only have 1 goal to show for it when Meredith collected a cross on the run and with one touch control slotted home past the keeper. A shot from outside the peanlty area from Kelly first saw the Cosmos equalise and a controversial goal gave them an unlikely lead when Perinovich challenged the keeper for a high ball and a clearance off the line deemed too late by the linesman and referee. A Taliadoros through pass saw Augerinos restore parity and a late winner from the scorer of a midweek Olympic goal was at the end of a flowing counterattack and slotted the ball across the keeper and inside the far post.
Match report by Nick Guoth
Played (28/10/1995), Falcons Park Referee : Cain Naumcevski, Crowd : 3,782
Morwell Falcons Jim Kourtis, Doug Marcina, Cummings, Claudio Canosa, Scott Miller, Ernie Tapai (Slobodan Despotovski 77), Sonny Sevin, John Waddell, Marcus Stergiopoulos (Michael Reda 70), Warren Spink, Brian Bothwell Goals : Bothwell 24, Canosa 74	2	-	1	West Adelaide Peter Blazincic, Richard Alagich, Con Kokkinoplitis, Robbie Slager, Robbie Hooker, Frank Tibaldi, Pablo Cardozo, Ross Aloisi, Mark Brazzale (Cyrille Ndongo-Keller 65), Jim Tsekinis, Nathan Day Goal : Tsekinis 67
Unlikely league leaders they might be but the Falcons deserve all the credit. They have become a team of players, who took the lead from a Bothwell header and despite a route 1 goal from Tsekinis the Falcons exerted enough pressure to restore a well deserved lead from a corner which was poorly cleared by Blazincic and put away by Canosa.
Played (29/10/1995), Melbourne Croatian Sports Centre Referee : W Dade, Crowd : 2,680
Melbourne Knights Frank Juric, Vinko Buljubasic, Fausto DeAmicis, David Cervinski, Andrew Marth, Ice Kutlesovski (Damian Vojtek 18), Joe Spiteri, Lubomir Lapansky, Danny Tiatto (Idriz Pelja 63), Ante Kovacevic, John Markovski Goals : Lapansky 50, Vojtek 83	2	-	0	Brisbane Strikers Clint Bolton, Alan Hunter, Frank Farina (sent off 73), Jason Polak, Rodney Brown, Troy Cranney, Chris Zoricich, Sean Cranney, Andrew Brayshaw (Danny Wright 45), Glenn Gwynne, Mark Battistin
The main talking point of this match was Farina's send off. After having collected a yellow card for a clumsy tackle in the early stages of the match he was again carded, inexplicably, for a foul in which he seemed to be the victim of a charge by the Knights #6. Brisbane had a good scoring chance denied by Juric but were even less lucky at the other end when Vojtek's shot took a deflection of Glenn Gwynne and had Bolton stranded for the Knights winner. After the match Farina said some unflattering things about the refereeing standard for which he was fined but he was rightly aggrieved.
Played (29/10/1995), Sydney Croatian Sports Centre Referee : D Crawford, Crowd : 4,716
Sydney United John Perosh, Velimir Kupresak, Tony Popovic, Mark Babic, Robert Enes (Sean Babic 59), Ante Moric, Ante Milicic, Mark Rudan, David Zdrilic (Dominic Usalj 69), Paul Bilokapic, Robert Markovac Goal : Rudan 39	1	-	2	Newcastle Breakers Craig Carter, Ralph Maier, Steve Hickman, Andy Roberts, Gary Wilson, Damian Brown (Glenn Sprod 59), Craig Sharpley, David Lowe, Adam Sanderson, Clayton Zane, Jason Bennett (Troy Halpin 49) Goals : Bennett 34, Lowe 62pk
Sydney United were unlucky to lose this match it's true. Not because the penalty was undeserved (far from it) but because of the plethora of missed oppertunities for the Sydneysiders. Utd coach Branko Culina blamed the midweek Olympic warm-up game for leaving several of his young players tired and drained but these things have a habit of evening out over a season. As an example of the ball's unwillingness to cross the Breakers goalline a cross from the right wing was first volleyed into the far post and the United follow-up shot was deflected off the keeper back onto the the near post, across the goal face and finally scrambled away for a corner. Laugh? I nearly died.
Played (29/10/1995), Hindmarsh Stadium Referee : Eugene Brazzale, Crowd : 4,866
Adelaide City Jason Petkovic, Sasha Nedeljkovic, Alex Tobin, Milan Ivanovic, Bradley Armour, Goran Lozanovski, John Gibson, Carlo Talladira, Damian Mori, Bradley Hassell (Mark Yates 85), Angelo Costanzo (Dino Mennillo 77)	0	-	2	Marconi-Fairfield Bob Catlin, Robert Stanton, Jean-Paul DeMarigny, Matthew Bingley, Andy Harper (Darren Iocca 77), Brad Maloney, Paul Souris, Eric Hristodoulou, Ramon Climente (Paul Beltrame 85), Aaron Holst (Brendan Renaud 87), Francis Awaritefe Goals : Maloney 52, Awaritefe 70
Adelaide City were strangely ineffectual in front of goal and a poorly cleared corner allowed Maloney to line up a shot through the crowd and give Marconi the lead. However better things were reserved for the second goal when Marconi played out of defence and sent Awaritefe on a 60metre run eluding 3 defenders before slotting home the goal of the round to seal the game for the travelling side.