The Western Sydney Wanderers have fallen 6-1 to North Shore Mariners at Northbridge Oval in their final regular game of the NPL 2 season.
A lone goal by Kosta Grozos was not enough to stop North Shore Mariners’ momentum after a number of goals ended the team’s journey to the finals.
North Shore took the lead in the 9th minute. Braden Cheng opened the scoring after his shot took a deflection, leaving Wanderers goalkeeper Nicholas Suman stranded.
Wanderers midfielder Tariq Maia was heavily involved in the early stages and attempted to find Matthew Lecce with a chipped through ball but the pass was slightly overhit.
A few minutes it was 2-0 with Marquin Smith scoring from just inside the penalty area.
Abraham Majok almost had the chance to respond after a North Shore defender misread the bounce of the ball, but Mariners goalkeeper Dominic Maunder came off his line quickly to cover the danger.
The 21st minute saw North Shore get their third goal with Ricky Woodward scoring from long range.
The Red & Black kept pushing and just after the half hour mark, Keanu Baccus went close but his cross was blocked on the goal line.
However, a minute later, Grozos would pull one back for the Wanderers getting his sixth goal of the season after curling a beautiful free kick past Maunder.
North Shore restored their three goal cushion as Woodward scored with another long range effort.
To their credit, the Wanderers kept the pressure on, forcing the Mariners defence into a number of hurried clearances.
With just over 20 minutes to go North Shore made it 5-1 as Smith got his second goal of the game.
Emmanuel Gonzalez was brought on as a substitute for the Red & Black and his involvement helped create a number of chances.
Majok then went on a barnstorming run down the right wing beating two defenders, but unfortunately, he was unable to pick out a team-mate with his cross.
With the game approaching full time, North Shore got their sixth of the afternoon as Scott Tonkin scored with the aid of another deflection.
The result means that the Wanderers finish the NPL 2 season in seventh place.
North Shore Mariners 6 (Braden Cheng 9’ Marquin Smith 16’ 69’ Ricky Woodward 21’ 57’ Scott Tonkin 86’)
Western Sydney Wanderers 1 (Kosta Grozos 32’)
Western Sydney Wanderers: Nicholas Suman, Tate Russell (Lochlan Constable 60’), Jordan Hall, Noah Pagden, Mathieu Cordier, Tariq Maia, Keanu Baccus, Kosta Grozos, Matthew Lecce (Emmanuel Gonzalez 60’), Kyle Cimenti, Abraham Majok
Unused substitutes: Mackenzie Syron, Abdelrahman Kuku, Thomas Aquilina
Other results:
U20s: North Shore 1-3 WSW
U18s: North Shore 0-4 WSW
U16s: WSW 1-1 Spartans
U15s: WSW 2-0 Spartans
U14s: WSW 2-1 Spartans
U13s: WSW 0-0 Spartans
