The chase is on!

BY BOB TURNER

BLACKTOWN CITY FC kept their 2023 Premiership hopes alive last week with a convincing 3-1 away win over Sydney Olympic for their fourth win in a row. The week before Blacktown took care of first place team, Marconi Stallions, at home with another dominant 3-1 scoreline. Round 23 will see Blacktown City back home at Landen Stadium when they will host Sydney FC in another critical encounter.

Travis Major, Jak O’Brien and Charles Mendy have provided the majority of goals up front in the last few weeks as Blacktown City has been healthy for the first time this season. Head of Football, Mark Crittenden has also added two key signings at the transfer window two weeks ago including International Nacho Palacios from Atletic Sant Just in Spain and young striker Reuben Awaritefe. Both have had an immediate impact on the club, lifting the depth, quality of play and team motivation.

The NSW Premiership race is tight and Blacktown City has a great deal of work to do with only eight rounds remaining. Apia Leichhardt lead the competition outright on 47 points closely followed by Marconi and Rockdale on 42 points. Blacktown currently sit on 37 points with an 11 win, 4 draw and 7 loss season to date. Destiny is in their own hands as they have remaining games against Apia in round 26 and Rockdale in the last round of the competition.

Head Coach, Mark Crittenden, has been a Master at rallying his troops in the money end of seasons. He did it last season as Blacktown hit their stride when it counted to win the 2022 Championship. “It’s not over yet, you put 6, 7, 8 games together and a couple of things go wrong at the top end – you never know what might happen” said Coach Crittenden. “We’ve done it before, we’ve won 10 games unbeaten, so we’ll just try and go out there every week. Even if we can’t win the league, we’ll still get in and try to cause havoc for everybody else,” he added.

Following the win against rivals Marconi and Sydney Olympic in the last two weeks, Blacktown City will have four remaining home games to build their Championship assault. Blacktown will host Sydney FC on the 9th of July, Sydney United on the 23rd of July, St George on the 6th of August, finishing their home stand with the Wollongong Wolves on Sunday, the 20th of August. All home games are played at 3pm at Landen Stadium, 5 Quinn Ave, Seven Hills.

Blacktown Women continue to grow in only their second season of competition. Led by Head Coach David ‘Dok’ O’Keefe, in the last three games the women have had a solid 2-0 win against Camden, a 1-1 draw with Marconi and last week another 1-0 win over Sutherland. Last week Blacktown held League leading Hills United to a 1-0 scoreline.

This Sunday, July 9th, Blacktown will host Sydney FC at Landen Stadium. Sydney FC are coming off a 1-0 win over Sydney United last week which elevated them to fifth place on the ladder, just behind Blacktown on 36 points. Sydney had a 1-0 win over Blacktown in Round 8 which sets up an exhilarating Round 23 encounter. Game time is 3pm with the Under 20’s at 1pm.

Sunday, July 23rd, Blacktown will host Sydney United in a ‘Back to Blacktown’ homecoming for all former Blacktown players. To added a special touch, the Board of Blacktown City FC will unveil the Graham Crawhall ‘GC’ Members bar on the day. GC was a

‘Life Member’ of Blacktown City, Manager to Mark Crittenden for over 20 years and last year was awarded the Valentine Medal for services to Football NSW. Sadly, GC passed away earlier this year and Blacktown City will pay special tribute to one of their most memorable members by unveiling his own Members bar! Go Blacktown City!