Spirit
FC suffered an embarrassing 8-nil defeat at the hands of Caversham in their
Soccersouth premier league clash at Dunedin on Saturday.
It
was not so much a case of Spirit under-performing, although player-coach Ken
Creswell acknowledged it was not one of its better performances, rather it was a
case of Caversham playing almost faultless football for the duration of the
game.
See, Cavy didn't score every
time as Shane Elliott tips this one over the bar
Its
young Otago United duo of Patrick Fleming and Croyden Wheeler had a field day as
they taunted the Spirit players with their speed and accurate inter passing,
backed up by cool and calculated performances from Brian Duncan and Tim Cook in
midfield.
To
complete Spirit’s trying afternoon whenever it launched a potential attacking
move on the Caversham goal Mike Smith in central defence and Daniel O’Kane at
left back were always alert to the danger and dealt with them with
confidence.
Day job physio Adam Letts
(blue) takes a quick peep before suggesting
his marker needs some work on the tummy muscles
Caversham
set the tone for the afternoon as early as the 4th minute of play
when following a brace of corner kicks Richie Murray headed home its first goal
of the day.
Lots of onlookers as Richie
Murray (extreme left) heads the first of many
It
was 2-nil six minutes later when Caversham swiftly turned defence into attack
and Wheeler was on hand to slot the ball home for the first of his two goals.
An
unprotected set piece four minutes later caught Spirit out and Rhys Henderson
made no mistake with his header into the net to increase Caversham’s margin to
3 goals.
Tim Cook (left) is pursued by
Spirit's Billy Haslam
Tim
Cook then added two more in a five-minute spell to give his team a 5-nil lead at
the thirty-minute mark that it held until the half time break.
By half time the Corporate
boxes had emptied out.....
Spirit
confidently set about some damage control early in the second spell but
Caversham was not finished yet and Robbie Deeley out-sprinted his marker to add
a sixth goal to the ever mounting tally.
For the next twenty minutes Spirit, lead by tenatious play from its Scottish import Barry Gardiner, did regain some credibility with its best period of play before Wheeler grabbed his second at 78 minutes and substitute Aaron Blacker completed the 8-nil score line four minutes from full time.
In Invercargill, Smiths City Old Boys continued its good form with a 2-nil win over defending title-holder McLellan Motors Queens Park at O’Rorke Park.
Andrew Elder struck first blood for Old Boys and Nick Redwood increased the lead to 2-nil before half time.
Old Boys showed good character to keep Park at bay for the second forty-five minutes and now shares the competition point’s table lead with Southend United.
Southend United with two goals from Nic Barclay held out SBS Gore Wanderers for a narrow 2-1 win in its game.
Talented
Gore youngster Jordan Hodge was on target for Wanderers.