A dislocated hip
sustained by goalkeeper Shane Elliott brought Spirit FC’s Soccersouth premier
league game with Mosgiel to an abrupt end on Saturday at Memorial Park Mosgiel.
Spirit lost the game 2-1.
With Elliott lying prone on the field of play, an Ambulance needing to come from Dunedin because the Mosgiel Medical Centre vehicle was already on a call and light fading fast it was mutually agreed to end the game with three minutes of normal time plus referees added time remaining.
The premature end came at a time when in a late flurry Spirit had fought its way back into contention with an equalising goal from a penalty kick but Mosgiel had retaken the lead almost immediately.
Elliott had and outstanding game in goal and it was from a “body-on-the-line” attempt to stop Mosgiel’s winner that he sustained his injury.
The Spirit keeper was treated and discharged from Dunedin hospital to a hospital residence late on Saturday night.
Spirit player-coach
Ken Cresswell was forced to ring the changes on Saturday with four key players
unavailable and in doing so made two positional changes that contributed to a
much better Spirit performance that in recent games.
Tobi Reid was moved into the midfield to cover for the absence of Barry Gardiner and Brendon Lloyd where the former striker had a strong game against a lively Mosgiel attacking quartet.
Wade Griffin was moved to the right wing position from his normal spot on the left side and his darting runs were a constant threat to Mosgiel’s defensive line up.
Cresswell assigned
two of his younger brigade, Simon Croft and Jason McMath from the bench to work
with Stephen Black in the defensive line and both performed with credit as
Spirit negated many slick Mosgiel attacks.
Mosgiel opened the scoring 5 minutes into the second half when a well worked move ended with Shane Danielson darting in to stab the ball home from close range.
Spirit captain and player-of-the-day Stephen Black slotted its penalty to level it at 1-all before Mosgiel’s Regan Coldicott drove home what was to be the winning goal and end the game.
Coldicott’s goal
was no more that he deserved as his blistering pace and clever play was a
constant threat to Spirit for the duration of the game and a feature of the
day’s play.
Locally the two Southland Finance premier league games were highlighted by Smiths City Old Boys hammering Quinns Pharmacy Gore Wanderers with a 12-nil scoreline at Gore. Andrew Elder led the way for his Old Boys unit with a five goal haul while Scott Morton (3), Brendon Robinson (2), Frank O’Boyle and Blair Maddison 1 each contributing to the rout.
Old Boys now shares top position with Southend United which had the bye-day.
The competitiveness of the competition was highlighted in the second game when the much under-performed Waihopai team defeated title holder McLellan Motors Queens Park 2-1 at O’Rorke Park. In-form Quinton Wicks grabbed a brace of goals for the winners with Otago Development team member Stu Kent responding with a goal for Park.
For Waihopai the win means it now holds the Larry O’Rorke challenge trophy.