It's one thing to win the Premiership comfortably but quite another to breeze into the Grand Final without a care in the world as Bonnyrigg White Eagles realised after being humbled 4-0 by third-placed Blacktown City at the Serbian Centre on Saturday night.

Around 1,500 mostly White Eagles' fans bore witness to a very poor performance by their title-winning heroes whose opponents had only qualified for this Major Semi Final by virtue of a win over Sydney United the previous weekend from a match that had finished all square after extra time and was decided on penalties.

Blacktown now advance directly to the Grand Final and will have a week off, a luxury afforded to Bonnyrigg before this game and one which may have done them no favours, according to Blacktown coach, Aytek Genc.

"I think the week off probably counted against them as we have kept playing every week and it's had us in the right frame of mind before this game," he said.

While Genc was discussing his team's joy at winning White Eagles coach, former Blacktown boss Brian Brown, was reading the riot act to his team still gathered together out on the pitch for a dressing down by the coach, perhaps bringing in some of his fellow-Scot Alex Ferguson's 'hairdryer' style.

The game had begun brightly enough for Bonnyrigg, playing in front of a partisan crowd, and with Blacktown supposedly weakened by the absence of three key players, suspended keeper Brody Crane, ace marksman and one-time Bonnyrigg player, Tolgay Ozbey and defender Matt Pressello.

But the team spirit that runs strongly through this team came into its own in this game with everyone stepping up.

Young keeper, Justin Biega, covered himself in glory with some important 'they shall not pass' moments and the tactical approach of coach Aytek Genc spoke volumes for his many years of campaigning both as a player and a coach.

"Yes we did have a tactical victory today, we read the game well. We don't play the same way in every game by any means. In fact we often change formations and tactics during our games and certainly from game-to-game and it worked well for us today.

With Ozbey pulling out on the day of the game with a hamstring strain the onus fell on others to take the game to Bonnyrigg once the defence had repelled the home side's invaders.

"I could have played probably", said Ozbey after the game, "and should be right inside a week. Now I have two weeks to recover fully which is a bonus."

Joel Chianese proved his worth as a stand-in for Ozbey with two early goals that knocked the stuffing out of Bonnyrigg.

Smart counter-attacking exposed Bonnyrigg completely with Chianese making his runs to perfection to finish off lighting fast moves down either flank before the home side realised what was happening.

It had been some immense pressure from Bonnyrigg in the opening five minutes that kept the Blacktown defenders and keeper Biega busy until a swift counter attack brought up the first of four goals for the visitors.

A Bonnyrigg attack had broken down and it had looked at that stage as if Blacktown would be under siege for most of the game but as the match wore on it soon became apparent that the boot would be on the other foot.

From the left, where he had raced to from deep, Chianese found the top right corner of the Bonnyrigg goal with a superb finish, giving Phil Zabaks no chance after defender Kenga Takushima had misjudged the bounce and let Chianese pounce.

Zabaks, clad 'Petr Cech style' in a full head cover, had done well to come back into the side and help them to the Premiership after serious head injuries, but he had little chance in this game to dwell on that achievement.

He was unable to deny Chinese a second goal in the 31st either.

Travis Major made a fine run down the right and his low cross from the by-line was turned in by Chianese as defenders and attackers alike closed in with contrasting intentions, but the Blacktown youngster won the race to the ball and slammed it home.

In between those goals Biega had made a couple of top saves to deny Bonnyrigg a chance to regain the initiative.

Wade Oostendorp had missed an open goal in the 21st, admittedly, and a handball appeal against Jordan Simpson had been turned down three minutes after that, but when Jamie McMaster burst through in the 31st it looked a certain equaliser was on the cards until Biega dived full length to his left to push the goal-bound shot around his post.

Nathan Elasi had also found the keeper too clever much earlier in the half when one-on-one, after the Bonnyrigg man had intercepted a very poor underweighted back pass to go on and challenge the keeper.

Making himself 'big' was all the youngster could do but he did that to perfection with a confident block that saved his side's defensive blushes.

Things got no better for Bonnyriigg in the second half and if anything they showed even less fight than they had in the first period.

This then made it easy for Mitchell Long to evade no fewer than two potential 'penalty-securing' tackles in the 52nd from Shane Webb before getting the ball across to the waiting Jordan Simpson to take his time and finish with ease, eight yards out.

That made it 3-0 and perhaps it was a little late to be making changes by then for the beaten team.

17 year old Iranian Wellie Al Rikaby had replaced Daniel Severino in the 48th but it was not until the 82nd minute that 18 year old prospect, Daniel Laimon, emerged from the bench to replace Elasi.

"We had some experienced defenders on the bench but we needed strikers if we were to change the course of the game," said Brian Brown who also dismissed the suggestion that he had been berating his players at the end of the game.

"We said at half time, let's go down fighting and give it our best shot to turn things around. I had to send on two youngsters but I think the team that wanted it more won on the night.

"We do have a pretty thin squad after losing two players earlier in the season, but we've managed quite well after Vuko Tomasevic and Milan Zoric left by bringing in Chris Tadrosse and Nathan Elasi and I think we can still make it to the Grand Final even after this loss. I'm not convinced that the week off was what beat us, but it may have had some bearing on it. We just weren't as hungry on the night as they were," he concluded.

The game ended 4-0 to Blacktown, a remarkable result by any criteria.

Blacktown had won 2-0 in the team's first meeting and the scores had been reversed in the return match.

If the Grand Final brings these same two sides together again it may well be Bonnyrigg's turn once more.

McMaster had put the ball over the bar for Bonnyrigg too in the 52nd but the White Eagles delivered a very below-par effort by their usual high standards and it was left to Blacktown to finish them off in the 87th with substitute Chris Bedzo easily finding the net after waltzing through virtually unchallenged.

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