Spirit FC suffered its
second big loss in succession when it was soundly beaten 7-nil in its
Soccersouth Premier league clash with Dunedin Technical at Rugby Park on
Saturday.
Getting pics of Shane in action and under pressure hasn't
been too difficult.
With the help of other
results from Saturday’s round nine games Tech moved into first position on the
point’s table and the gap between the three top teams and the chasing pack
increased to nine points.
Saturday’s game in
Invercargill was notable for a crucial refereeing decision that impacted badly
on some Spirit players and allowed Tech to grab an advantage that it never
relinquished.
Unlike last week’s
effort when beaten 8-nil Spirit in fact played some good football in the opening
exchanges and despite going two goals in arrears in the first twelve minutes
through strikes by Riki Chidley and John Lang its performance gained momentum.
It's ever so easy for Riki to tap in Tech's first
Brendon Lloyd showed some fine touches in midfield, Barry Gardiner shot dangerously wide of the Tech goal and Wade Griffin skimmed the crossbar with his effort.
At the thirty minute mark with Tech on attack the referee blew his whistle to stop play for a foul tackle.
As Tech’s Andy Pickering headed toward goal with the ball and with the Spirit defenders dropping their guard the ref called play-on and allowed the unchallenged Pickering to score the goal.
Spirit players remonstrated vigorously to no avail and the whole episode had a negative effect on some players.
Later, Pickering
himself called the decision to play on and to allow the goal “bizarre”.
In the aftermath John
Lang and Mike Cunningham hammered home two goals in quick succession for Tech to
extend the lead to 5-nil and put the game beyond doubt before the half time
whistle.
Spirit regained some
composer after the break and restricted Tech to just one more goal for the first
thirty-five minutes of the second spell.
Proof that Tech did actually defend
Tech left it until the eightieth minute to score its goal-of-the-day when Brad Rodden from the edge of the Spirit penalty area deftly controlled the ball with his back to goal and with a swift turn struck an unstoppable volley into the roof of the Spirit net to complete the 7-nil score line.
At Bain Park Southend
United took the outright lead in the Southland Finance premier league with a
narrow and hard fought 1-nil win against Waihopai.
..
Left: Southend's Paul Berry being closeley attended by
Waihopai's Allan Gregory
Right: Southend's Paul Lemin and Waihopai's Chris Jones go for it...
..
Right: Waihopai keeper Shane Harpur makes a brave-save at the feet of Southends
Nic Barclay
Defending title-holder McLellan Motors Queens Park gained its first competition points for the season with a 2-1 win at Gore against SBS Gore Wanderers.
Jonny
Cox and Craig Campbell netted for Park while veteran Barry Hamlin was Gore’s
marksman.