Bayswater’s cup continues to runneth over with success

By Jason Harris

Bayswater continued their recent dominance of the local cup competitions, winning their second straight Cool Ridge Cup with a clinical 2-0 win against Stirling at Macedonia Park on Saturday Afternoon.
Stirling would have been happy with their start winning three corners, but they were cleared with little difficulty by the Bayswater defence.

In the 10th minute, Bayswater were awarded a free kick after Adam Bachiller was fouled. It seemed to be a position where Stirling would feel they could defend the incoming set-piece delivery into their penalty area.

However, they would not have expected the sublime delivery from Gustavo Marulanda, whose wicked free-kick landed on the outstretched foot of red-hot striker Steve Burton who diverted it past Alexs Vrteski from approximately 6 yards.

After the goal went in, the “Baysie Ultras” were in full voice. Their chanting boomed around the main stand. It was outstanding passionate support, which no doubt makes the players on the pitch stand even taller.
Stirling continued to win corners, but they were unable to get behind the Bayswater defence to have a true shot on goal.

Marulanda was causing a lot of trouble for the Stirling defence, and this was highlighted further when he was able to turn his defender, and fire in a shot from the top of the 18-yard box.
Vrteski was able to save the incoming thunderbolt, but he was only able to palm it into the path of Todd Howarth, who was able to coolly dispatch the ball into the net from 10 yards.

Soon after that, Marulanda set up Howarth again, only for the star midfielder to pull his shot wide while being left completely alone in the box.

It would have been alarming for Stirling’s management team, that Bayswater were seemingly able to carve open their defence with ease.
As the game reached half time, the visitors were comfortably in front and Stirling needed to lift a lot more to get back into the game.

The second half started with Stirling looking to push forward with more purpose, but again there seemed to be little end product for all their hard work.

Marulanda was denied what looked to be a clear penalty when he was pushed inside the area, but it was waved away by the referee. He was taken off soon after that and replaced by Damien Catalano. His performance was superb, and made even better by the admission from manager Chris Coyne after the game that he had the flu all week, yet was desperate to play a part in the game.

The final 25 minutes was played in a casual manner with Bayswater more than happy to let Stirling have the ball, confident that Stirling wouldn’t be able to break their defence.
Bayswater nearly added a third, when Burton played it to Catalano who fired just over the bar.

The final whistle blew soon after, and there were jubilant scenes as Bayswater City celebrated their second straight Cool Ridge Cup and 5th trophy in under 2 seasons.
This is a fine achievement for Chris Coyne, his coaching group and his squad of players.

Stand-in captain Steve Burton was awarded the Stan Lazaridis medal for best player on the pitch, but many Bayswater players could have been awarded that honour in a very even team performance.
Stirling would be very disappointed that they didn’t play better on the biggest stage, however their consolation is that they are in the FFA Cup and have a big game against the Brisbane Roar in a few weeks.

After some well-deserved celebrations, Bayswater will continue on their mission to win all the trophies on offer in the 2014 season and on this form, it would take a fantastic effort from one of their rivals to deny them of that feat.

 

After Match Quotes
Bayswater Manager Chris Coyne

“I think the game was dead and buried when we went two up, they had a couple of half chances but I feel if we had got another one, it would have been a onslaught.”
“Just immensely proud I apologised to the boys who I took off as they were all superb.”

“ They are a good team I think they are going to rewrite history because they have the potential to do that and they are as good as I have seen in the state league in quite a while.”

“Gustavo was immense his talent is outrageous, everyone knows how good he is. He had the flu all this week, yet he still wanted to play he is a credit to himself and he is the kind of player that people want to watch in full flight.”
“Steve was in the right spot like all good Number nines are he does all the hard work for you all the yards and he is able to get the poachers goal.”

“I think we have conceded only 15 goals this year and being a defender myself when I played it is something I take a lot of pride in that side of the game. The boys want to get better, they listen they learn and that’s why it’s an absolute pleasure in working with them.”
“We will enjoy tonight as we should when we achieve success but come Monday Night it is back to business and it is a massive, massive push to the finishing line because we got caught short last year.”

 

Final Score
Stirling 0 Bayswater City 2

Goalscorers
Burton 10’
Howarth 27’

Bookings
Stirling – Kalou 16’
Bayswater City – Howarth 87’

 

Match Stats

Shots on Target
Stirling 6 Bayswater City 6

Shots off Target
Stirling 3 Bayswater City 3

Offsides
Stirling 2 Bayswater City 0

Corners
Stirling 10 Bayswater City 2

Stirling Lions
1(GK) Aleks Vrteski, 2 Rikki Smith, 4 Jovo Pavlovic, 5 Dean Evans, 6 Hayden Doyle, 7 Miki Vujacic, 8 Andrew Brown (C), 9 Moses Kalau, ( Pugalese 60’) 10 David Micevski, 11 Phil Arnold, (Salter 74’) 14 Ali Ghoulami


Subs Not Used
24 Connor Campbell (RGK)
12 Daniel Dols
15 Boas Mtwale

Bayswater City
1(GK) Devon Spence, 2 Declan Hargreaves, (El Yassiri 76’) 3 Adam Bachiller, 6 Todd Howarth, 8 Paul McCarthy, 9 Gustavo Marulanda (Catalano 63’), 12 Steve Burton (C), 15 Brian Farrell, 16 Jamie Coyne 20 Sam Mitchinson, 23 Chris Saldaris

Subs Not Used
5 Andy Reale
14 Harry Bissett
17 Sahr Musa