A demoralising away defeat at the hands of Salisbury Sharks left the Blacks winless after four matches.

 

SAASL Division 3 Round 4

Adelaide University Black 1-9 Salisbury Sharks.

Goal: Miro Vujica

 

Spectators could not have forecast what was about to transpire after the opening minutes of the match.

At 17 minutes, a ball was played by Mitch Coleman on the right to Luke Urban who shot and was denied a goal by the post.

The Sharks responded minutes later as their player looped in an attempted cross from the right and it required Blacks ‘keeper Jacob Davey to tip the ball over the bar.

The resulting corner was delivered and the ball landed to Augustus on the goal line who made a nonchalant attempt at a defensive clearance but the ball was eventually knocked in by the Sharks to give them the lead at 21 minutes.

Less than two minutes later, the Sharks attacking midfielder beat the Blacks defender to send a soft through-ball to their striker who toe-poked the ball past Davey to double their lead.

Soon after restarting, the Blacks attacked through Urban but the Sharks defender made a well-timed slide-tackle.

Miro Vujica was tripped and the resulting Joe Henderson freekick ended up with Vujica again at the back post who headed it from close range between the posts.

The goal represented a glimmer of hope for the Blacks in achieving any positive result in this match.

At 34 minutes, however, the Sharks delivered a corner to their attacker in the middle of the box who rose high above the Blacks defender to power a header into the goal to restore their two-goal-lead.

After the Blacks successfully thwarted an attack, a Sharks player pushed Blacks defender Foti Hatziapostolou and subsequently received a yellow card.

Moments later, a Sharks midfielder played a pass to their attacker on the edge of the box, whose turn fooled the Blacks defender and his shot found the back of the net to extend their lead to 4-1 at 42 minutes.

In a spate of attacks before half-time, a Sharks attacker powered forward before placing the ball in the bottom left of the goal to take the score to 5-1.

The Blacks turned the ball over under pressure and the Sharks made a pass across the face of goal but the shot from the attacker at the back post was saved at close range by Davey.

Just before the end of the first half, Davey claimed a shot at goal but fumbled the ball for the Sharks attacker to place the ball into the net.

The half ended 6-1 to the Sharks.

Soon after the second half commenced, the Blacks conceded again as the Sharks played the ball across goal to tap it in the net once more to put the Blacks 7-1 down.

A minute later, Sharks were playing the ball around the edge of the Blacks defensive box before their player slammed in a powerful shot from outside the area for 8-1.

At 58 minutes, the Blacks managed to play a string of passes before a low shot from Henderson but it was collected by the Sharks ‘keeper.

Ten minutes later, the ball bounced around in the Blacks goal-box while the Sharks took a multitude of shots and hit the post before it was booted to safety.

Within a couple of minutes, the Sharks scored again.

Both teams looked fatigued as the match neared its end.

Henderson took a shot in the dying minutes of the match in a final attempt to restore a sliver of dignity to his team’s performance.

The match ended 9-1.

‘That is the worst game I’ve ever coached’, Blacks coach Mohan Karthigeyan told his team after the match.

Karthigeyan had nothing further to say after a match best left in the past.

 

Main photo: William Chau