JULY
15th
ILT Spirit FC 0, Green Island 1;
Southend United 1, Ascot Tavern Queens Park 1;
In the local Southland Premier league the top-of-the-table clash between Ascot Tavern Queens Park and Southend United ended in an entertaining 1-all draw.
Both teams showed a greater determination not to lose rather than to win so the game was played mainly in mid-field with rare attacking opportunities from both teams.
Queens Park struck first blood when mid-way through the first half following some good work from my POD Mark Pearson.
Domnick Katvic burst clear and pressured the Southend goalkeeper into a basic mistake from which he (Katavie) was left with a simple tap-in goal.
Southend struck back mid-way through the second half and once again it was a
gift goal.
Striker Damond Hedges chipped the ball across the face of goal and as it headed wide of the upright to safety Park’s retreating defender Darren Dore bundled it into his own net to even the tie at 1-apiece.
Before the game ended both goalkeepers Mark Bugden (Southend) and Chris Pearson (Park) were called on to save their teams and they did it in style.
Bugden threw himself bravely (or some might say foolishly) at the feet of two Queens Park attackers to smother the ball under pressure and Pearson at full stretch palming the ball from the on-rushing Paul Berry inches (ok for the youngies - centimetres) from the line when a goal looked the most likely outcome.
Spirit FC failed to recover from an early Green Island goal and lost its
Soccersouth premier clash by the solitary goal at Surrey Park on Saturday.
As if to rub salt into its wound four of the five teams that Spirit FC was
within striking distance of all recorded wins and improved their positions on
the points table.
Spirit FC started nervously once again in Saturday’s game and paid the price
in the seventh minute of play when Green Island’s Dave Milton outsmarted his
markers to grab an opportunist goal and put his team ahead 1-nil.
The Spirit FC players are no strangers to early setbacks and once again
regrouped in an attempt to salvage something from the game.
Most of the Spirit FC initiative for the remainder of the first half was being
displayed down the left flank. Matty Burgess and Wade Griffin in particular had
the measure of their opponents but all too often a wayward pass or a timely
Green Island intervention prevented the assault on goal delivering any reward.
Burgess was subbed for Hamish Low for the second forty-five minutes in the hope
that Low’s pace would inject some life into the Spirit attack. While the plan
worked at times, Spirit was unable to finish off its good work.
The nearest the ILT sponsored Spirit FC team came to grabbing a point from the game was eight minutes into the second spell when a Scott Rogers volley from long range settled into the Green Island net.
However, referee Wayne Rayner and his assistant ruled that two Spirit players
were in an offside position at the time.
The ruling was somewhat controversial under the new FIFA interpretation used
during the World Cup considering neither player had played the ball in the
process of it entering the net.
For Green Island Liam Dungey on its left midfield was always a threat to Spirit’s chances, while Lance Woods at center back for the visitors used his height and guile well to keep Spirit at bay.
A goal down at half time, courtesy of a Green Island reserves penalty, Waihopai lifted its effort in the second spell of their Otago Fletcher cup game to snatch a well-earned point.
Mike Keen slotted Waihopai’s equalising goal from close range.