Ventured to watch some New South Wales Premier Leagues (NPLNSW) at Lambert Park between hosts APIA Leichardt and Blacktown City on a rather cool July Saturday evening in Sydney. Thankfully the weather was fine and no threat of rain or anything unpleasant besides the chilly winds blowing in from the coast send the thermometer southwards as the match progressed. However, not too drastic where anyone would be in clear visible discomfort. Though the comforts of home and warmth would have been nice!
Now I have not seen an NPL game or A-League game played on synthetic before, or I simply cannot recall, so I was interested to see how the surface would play out for the game and if the players would play any differently, or there would be no differences and they would play as per normal. Now I am sure that I would be blasted for not being better adjusted to the foibles of Sydney's public transportation system, the fact that everything takes more time than it should. I honestly should be better than that, though I am a mere mortal after all. So, taking the light rail from Central to Marion was quite the windy trail and time was just being eaten up. Getting to the ground I was unfamiliar with the entrance and where to go. Though once I had figured it out it was straight forward and found my way to the canteen.
Now I was a little disappointed about what was on offer at the canteen, but I was happy to have something as I was feeling rather peckish. The food on offer was your standard Australian football codes hot food. Hot chips, sausage rolls, sausage sizzles and pies. The 'additions' were salads, steak rolls and a ham and egg roll. There was a coffee machine at hand and the guys behind the counter were making the drinks like they've been doing it with their eyes closed with orders coming left right and centre. They were pumping out the orders and was very impressive to witness.
So, I ordered a sausage roll and a can of coke. I was thinking of a beer, but I wasn't able to see them on the menu list. I probably wasn't looking hard enough or aware of where they were being such a newbie to the venue and the situation here at Lambert Park. I'm sure they were available; I just didn't see them. I sat down on the opposite wing of the members stand that looks more akin to a boarded-up fortress, the Joe Marston stand after a pioneering Australian footballer in which a medal is named after him or the best performing player in the old National Soccer League and A-League final. There was no way to be able to go to that stand as they follow a strict member only rule and they enforce that with extreme prejudice. The sausage roll with tomato sauce was nice, though I might have added a bit more. The can of coke went down nice and was all reasonably priced. The roll was 5 dollars and the can was 3.
APIA had dominated the first half with opening the scoring in the 23rd minute and looked like they were going to further their lead by putting Blacktown under all sorts of trouble and were being pushed back and were struggling to clear their lines and mount some form of counter or strings of threatening passes to try and build pressure upon the hosts. It did not look likely that the visitors were going to score, let alone spend some degree of time in their attacking half. I was honestly thinking that the second half might be more of the same and APIA would be scoring more and more.
However, something must have happened in the change rooms of Blacktown as their manager must have fired a rocket up their bottoms to lift them from a rather lacklustre half and demanded to lift for their one rather vocal fan it seemed. Yes, there were other Blacktown fans around, though not as vocal and rambunctious as that guy was in his home kit, hat, scarf and flag. The visitors came out charging and were instantly throwing hay-makers catching the hosts by surprise and were stunned that they were at the receiving end of this aggressive challenge.
While the tempo throughout the game was of a high level, Blacktown seemed to be struggling but found their feet in the second half and were able to match APIA and give it back to them mounting serious threats catching them off guard. You could see it all over their faces that they were not prepared for this unrelenting attacking from Blacktown and it culminated with the scores being levelled and really sent a message to the rather vocal home fans. This was not going to be a walk in the park for them and at the 58th minute mark would be the definitive turning point for the game.
The visitors were just pressing down both wings and trying to find weaknesses in the defensive armour of APIA. The men in claret were staying strong however, not allowing the men in black to over-run them and showing them why they are top of the table in the NPLNSW. The defensive lines of APIA were to be breached ten minutes later and they were now trailing for the first time. They were just not finding the answers to these attacking waves and when they did try and venture forward, the didn't have that bite to put one away.
The last ten minutes of the match, as well as the additional 4 minutes of stoppage time saw APIA spring to life and were able to turn the tide and tempo against them, though it would not bare any fruit and the match ended in a win to Blacktown City 2-1 against the table toppers.
This was an interesting match to see in my first NPLNSW in 11 years and my first at APIA's home ground. These grounds in Sydney are tighter-knit with limited spaces compared to the grounds of Perth. Was great to watch some entertaining football on a cool Sydney winter's evening.
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