Marconi, 7pm Saturday 13th April 2019 (Away)
- philipkeegan
- Apr 15, 2019
- 3 min read
Marconi Football Club was founded in 1958 (the same year as Croatia) as an offshoot of the Bocce club formed two years earlier by Italian immigrants in 1956. The side first took part in the State comp in 1961 and reached the top tier of State football in 1970. They won that twice before being a founding member of the NSL in 1977. They stayed in the NSL until its demise in 2004 and won it on four occasions in 1979, 1988, 1989 & 1993. The team are heavily backed by the huge Club Marconi attached to Marconi Stadium in Bossley Park, just 1 km from King Tom. As such, the clubs have a rivalry but most will tell you the derby is against Olympic. This is due to the fact that Marconi never had any big support. Crowds were usually much smaller than the Olympic games back in the day. I’ve not seen any supporters groups following them in the time I have been watching Croatia, although that is likely to change. The club spent heavily in the summer and are expected to challenge this season.
I had a friend’s daughter’s first birthday party to attend so I jumped the train from St Peters to Cabramatta and got the usual cab. I met the lads at King Tom beforehand for a couple of beers and from there I grabbed a lift to Marconi just in time for kick off. There was a heavy security presence at the gate, something that I don’t recall before, and my bag was checked as I entered. We made our way to the far corner of the ground where the SUS had gathered. We saw a strange site before us: a group of about 25 Marconi with a drum at the same end, behind the goal. God, they even had a banner and a name “La Salla” (The Stable)!
The game started off badly and got worse quickly. It took less than a minute to fall behind, new signing Mallia tapping in from a long cross at the back post. Cue the baiting from The Stable that would come back to haunt them. Mallia should of made it two when played through less than 5 mins later but was denied by an excellent Manos save. Jesic made it 2-0 shortly after from a long ball over the top, putting it away clinically. After 20 minutes, the game was then put beyond Croatia when old boy Pavlovic glanced in the third from a free kick. His over the top celebration in front of the SUS was yet again out of order. It changed the whole atmosphere, and in my mind the trouble that followed in the stands. Exactly why the club thought it a good idea to put both sets of supporters’ groups at the same end of the ground is beyond me. Either way, the game was then halted by the referee as The Stable were charged by our lot (I don’t know what caused the chase). After all their baiting and shouting they sh*t themselves and ran off! Nice one lads, don’t dish it if you can’t take it. How embarrassing on your own patch! The police then restored order and the game was back on. The behaviour of the Marconi bench wasn’t much better, also baiting the crowd. They should be reprimanded by the league, but I doubt they will be. Croatia conceded another soft goal to Jesic to make it 4-0 after about half an hour. Not long after Pavlovic scored again, making it a disastrous 5-0! At least this time he had the sense not to come over to us. Half time and the game was over as a contest.
The lack of beer inside the ground did not help matters, so I was glad to find that some booze had been sneaked in during half time. Just to take the edge off proceedings! Our boys were applauded back onto the pitch for the second half and put up a much improved display. The game started to get niggly and Marconi had 5 booked by the end, with a rumour later that one of their players should have been sent off but wasn’t. Not much else to say on the second half, except that I was glad we didn’t concede any more goals! With around ten minutes left Simonoski was brought down and we were awarded a penalty. Tomelic took the penalty but his effort was saved - it was just one of those days. The game ended 5-0. The boys were applauded off at the end and The Stable went home to change their underwear. We headed back to King Tom for a few beers - no chance of us getting into Club Marconi in Croatia jackets! Also – a big shout out to the guy who gave me a lift afterwards! Sydney Croatia Ole Ole Ole….
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