Macarthur FC heads to next Sunday’s Western Sydney derby against the Wanderers in indifferent form.
The Bulls 2-2 draw with Western United yesterday at Campbelltown Stadium comes after their loss to Auckland FC a week earlier.
Yesterday in particular it was obvious that the departure of three of their players is having an impact both in defence and attack.
It’s fair to say that Chris Ikonomidis, the replacement winger for Jed Drew, who’s off to Austria, may need more time to find his feet and learn the combinations, especially with Valere Germain in the middle of the attack.
Also sorely missed was defender Oliver Jones, who despite his youth offered a lot of maturity in dealing with dangerous attacks from the opposition.
Yesterday afternoon at Campbelltown and under a threatening sky, the Bulls conceded the first goal after the visitors had dominated proceedings for just over 20 minutes.
The Bulls looked like a team without a plan during that period, and it was just a matter of time their defence would crack, which is exactly what happened in the 22nd minute.
However, the two Bulls players having an exceptional game, Marin Jakolis and Jake Hollman, combined on the left hand side to level the scores at 1-1.
Jakolis, who it has to be said is too good a player to be spending so much time arguing with the referees, was electric, presenting a real threat every time he found some space out wide.
His pass or Hollman to score in the 32nd minute was just about as good as it gets.
The teams went to the break with the scores level at 1-1.
After the resumption, the Bulls went back to playing below par, and before they knew it paid the price for unforced errors, including giving possession away in their own half.
A careless Luke Brattan pass just out side the Bulls box in the 49th minute found a United player and suddenly it was 2-1 to the visitors.
Macarthur FC lifted after this point but for 30 minutes could not score a goal.
In the 78th minute that man Jakolis came to the rescue with a brilliant individual goal to make it 2-2.
The final 15 minutes of the game went into helter-skelter mode as both teams went hell for leather trying to steal the three premiership points.
But it was not to be, and it finished at 2-2.
Next Sunday’s Round 19 match with Wanderers at Parramatta will kick off at 5pm.
The week after that the Bulls have a bye, before returning to Campbelltown on Saturday, March 1 to host Sydney FC in another big clash set to kick off at 7.35pm.
