We Fall Agonisingly Short At Cromer Park
A rough one to swallow. We led for the best part of an hour at Cromer Park on Saturday night, only to see Manly United snatch it from us in the last ten minutes, going down 2-1 in a result that stings more than most.
Both sides came in on good form, Manly unbeaten in four, us riding a three game winning streak and pushing hard for the top four. It showed early, a scrappy, tight affair where neither side could find much clear air. Jordan Perez almost had us in front in the 15th minute with a dangerous ball across goal that somehow found nobody, and we came even closer right before the break when Nicholas Olsen's free-kick caused chaos in the box, only for Mackenzie Syron to recover and smother Tariq Maia's follow-up.
We got the goal our first half performance deserved just after the hour mark. A handball from Aaron O'Driscoll in the box gave us a penalty, and Olsen made no mistake, powering it into the top corner despite Syron guessing the right way. We should have made it two soon after when Thijs Van Amerongen fired narrowly wide, and in hindsight that's the moment we needed to kill the game off.
Manly kept pushing and got their reward in the 81st minute, Darcy Burgess reacting quickest in a goalmouth scramble to level things up. Three minutes later came the sucker punch. Substitute Ayumu Kimura produced a moment of pure quality, cushioning a long ball with a back-to-goal flick before slotting past Danijel Nizic to complete the turnaround. Gutting way to lose a game we controlled for so long.
These are exactly the matches we know we need to be winning if we want to finish as high as possible come finals time. The good news is every other result around us went our way, so we hold onto 5th spot, still just a point off Rockdale. No time to dwell on it. Focus shifts straight to Saturday night at home.
Result: Manly United FC 2 – 1 Sutherland Sharks FC
Scorers: Nicholas Olsen 59'
Venue: Cromer Park, Saturday 11 July 2026
We're back at Seymour Shaw this Saturday against Sydney Olympic. Time to put this one right. See you there.