BIG GAME REVIEWS
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August 18th
Spirit FC 4, Grants Braes 2;

Spirit FC player coach Ken Cresswell introduced two new players to his ever increasing squad for Saturday’s Soccersouth premier league game against Grants Braes at Gore.

 Barry Gardiner was going to play but he's only half ready :-)

It brought to 32 the number of players Cresswell has used for the season but more significantly both played a major part in Spirit’s comfortable 4-2 win over the visitors from Dunedin.

Old Boy’s Scott Kiddey grabbed the goal that eventually sparked Spirit into urgency mode while Waihopai youngster Fabian Wanjura was not daunted by the stronger more experienced Grants Braes opponents as he created opportunities from the mid field for the Spirit strikers.

Wanjura is a visiting exchange student from Germany.

Five of Cresswell’s starting 11 were below eighteen years of age as Hargest College players Trent Suddaby, Campbell Edwards, Mark Pearson and Waihopai’s Wade Griffin also made the line-up.

Spirit started Saturday’s game with real gusto and had the better of the early exchanges.

 Campbell Edwards in determined mood.

Edwards opened the scoring at the 25min mark when he was rewarded for persistence with a rather lucky rebound entering the Grants Braes net during a goalmouth scramble.

Grants Braes was stung by the goal and for the rest of the half kept Spirit at bay while it created and missed several chances of its own.

Veteran Robbie Mitchell was proving to be the thorn in Spirit’s side as he thwarted several promising counter attacking moves ensuring his team went to the break with just the one goal deficit.

 Mitchell (Gold & Black) is seen here getting the better of Spirit's
Campbell Edwards.

Five minutes into the second half Grants Braes goalkeeper Brendon Hollander made a fingertip save from the head of Spirit’s player-of-the-day John Schol and when two minutes later Stephen Black was the last-man-standing and dramatically cleared a certain Grants Braes goal off the line the pendulum looked to have swung the visitors way.

 Hollander keeps the ball away from Spirit's Scott Kiddey (11)

Spirit’s Kiddey had other ideas though and when he struck his goal to put Spirit 2-nil ahead it signalled the start of a Spirit mini-onslaught that saw Matty Burgess extend the lead to 3-nil before Edwards stretched it to 4-nil with his second two minutes later.

 Burgee (2) attempts to fly, Ken's happy and Ibbi thanks the lord
after Burgees goal.....
One goal and he (Burgee) decides to run through the whole Grants Braes team
......what's he on ?
 

The effort was beginning to tell on Spirit though and Grants Braes began to capitalise on some uncharacteristic desperate Spirit defending during which Dan Anfield and James Mundane grabbed a goal each to bring some respectability back to the scoreline.

Locally the Southland Finance premier league teams played out the final round of the competition with Smiths City Old Boys defeating Quins Pharmacy Gore Wanderers 4-1.

Andrew Elder netted two goals for Old Boys ensuring that he finished as leading goalscorer for the season with ten, two clear of Southend United striker Nic Barclay.

Scott Morton and Nick Redwood were also on target for Old Boys while Morgan Green struck for Wanderers.

Goals from Jordan Coutts and Jason Gold secured the three win points for McLellan Motors Queens Park as it accounted for Waihopai 2-nil.

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