Spirit FC continued its slide down the Soccersouth premier league points table when it was soundly beaten 5 goals to 1 by South Canterbury United at Timaru on Saturday.
Spirit’s drop from a promising fourth position to seventh on the table with four consecutive losses reflects that form and the effect that the unavailability through injury of its prime play-maker Scottish Import Barry Gardiner is having.
However there is also the issue of players being unavailable to travel forcing coach Ken Cresswell to constantly change his starting 11 and game plans week in and week out that continues to plague the team performances.
When chosen as goalkeeper for Saturday’s game James Hargest College student Trent Suddaby had the distinction of becoming the thirtieth player Cresswell has used in this season’s campaign.
A statistic which highlights the frustration that Cresswell must endure as he tries to prepare a competitive unit for Soccersouth’s flagship competition.
Spirit’s loss on Saturday can be attributed to early defensive errors that allowed South Canterbury’s attacking force the freedom to create several scoring chances and quickly establish a 3-nil cushion.
Although playing with the advantage of a strong wind at its back Spirit was unable to recover from the set-back and was always playing catch up football.
Spirit did grab a goal back on the stroke of half time when Tobi Reid netted direct from a corner kick to send the teams to the break with a 3-1 score line.
Unlike Spirit, South Canterbury was able to use the wind more effectively in the second half and while keeping Spirit at bay added another two goals to its own tally.
For the home team Anthony Hancock bagged 3 goals while Peter Rae and Carl Irvine slotted 1 a-piece.
In Invercargill Waihopai outclassed the new Southland Finance Premier League champions Southend United 6 goals to 3 with a dazzling second half display in atrocious conditions at O’Rorke Park.
The final outcome of the game is undecided though as Waihopai chose to play the suspended Spirit FC player Brendon Lloyd in its starting line up and Southend United has protested the rule breach.
Should Southend’s protest be upheld and the result reversed it will also regain the Larry O’Rorke challenge trophy from Waihopai.
Whatever the case, the game will be remembered for the second half Waihopai onslaught in which player coach Chris Jones netted all five goals with a superb individual display.
Two Paul Berry strikes and a reply from Waihopai’s Brent DeRuyter had given Southend a 2-1 advantage at the half time break with Ian Watson slotting home a late Southend consolation goal.
McLellan Motors Queens Park maintained it’s third placing in the competition but was made to work hard by a more lively performance from the home team Quin’s Pharmacy Gore Wanderers at Gore.
Danny Rosel netted twice for Queens Park while it’s third came from Stu Kent in his first outing since returning from the Otago Development teams sojourn at the Milk Cup tourney in Northern Ireland.
Jordan Hodge struck Gore’s only goal.