Rockdale wins local derby

Rockdale's scoring machine Alec Urosevski got the party started with his first of two goals before Sutherland levelled after 30 minutes.

Mitch Stamatellis restored parity for the home side with a long range bomb before the Shire's Lachlan Everett bagged an equaliser.

Urosevski however had the last laugh as his second goal of the match sealed the victory and his spot as the league's leading scorer after nineteen matches.

Just in time for kick-off, the heavens opened producing driving rain into the faces of the Sharks players making life difficult for the visitors especially playing into the strong wind .

Urosevski opened the scoring when Rockdale beat the offside trap in the ninth minute and just before half time a Stamatellis shot found its way through a packed defence to land in the net as the defender notched up his first for the 2022 NPL NSW season in style.

It was a typical local derby with some bruising tackling yet was surprisingly open in terms of opportunities with the home side hitting the half-time break in front 2-1.

Sutherland adopted a much more attacking approach from the restart and their quick counter-attacking caused Rockdale problems at the back and the game was levelled in the 73' minute.

That didn't last long as Urosevski netted his 19th goal of the season and restored Rockdale's lead to 3-2.

Rockdale coach Steve Zoric said he wasn't happy with their second half and they really made it tough on themselves.

"The first-half I was pleased with and we should have wrapped it up, but I'm proud of the effort from the boys today and we'll keep going strongly in our final few games.

"It was a tough three points to win but we did and it keeps us in the hunt."

Rockdale is sitting one spot out of the top six but with a big gap to the chasing bunch, they now face Northbridge Bulls FC in another home game on Saturday afternoon where they are favourites to get the three points which should put them back into the finals zone.