For the fourth time
this season Spirit FC conceded more than five goals in a game when second placed
Dunedin Technical romped to an 8-nil win in their Soccersouth premier league
clash in Dunedin.
All four occasions
were against the two top teams Caversham and Technical and three times, as was
the case on Saturday, Spirit failed to register a reply of its own, a sign that
clearly indicates there is a huge gap developing in the capability of teams in
Soccersouth’s showpiece competition.
Spirit FC is not the only team that is being dealt to in like manner by these teams.
There were excuses
in the Spirit camp with Ibrahim Munu and Chris Pearson forced out of travelling
late in the week and another, John Schol, picking up an injury during the team
warm-up that left him on the sideline for the afternoon.
With Pearson out and Spirit’s other keeper Shane Elliott injured a mayday call was sent to Riverton’s former Cantabrian Craig Cooper to fill the gap and although he has not played in the position for 3 years Cooper responded and made his debut in the team.
However he (Cooper) did not have a pair of goalkeeping gloves, perhaps the most important part of a keeper’s kit these day’s, and nor was there a pair in the team kit.
A mercy dash
around the sport shops of Dunedin by team manager Adrian Cocker failed to bear
fruit so Cooper was forced to handle the wet-slippery ball as they did “in
the-old-days”.
Under the circumstances his performance while not outstanding was adequate.
That Technical was
superior was never in doubt from the outset as it swiftly moved around the pitch
and into attacking mode with confidence scoring its first four goals with simple
tap-ins resulting from tearing the Spirit defence apart in clinical style.
A player-of-the-day performance from defender Matty Burgess and hardworking efforts from midfielders Brendon Lloyd and Tobi Reid featured in Spirit’s general play.
For the record
Technical led at halftime 3-nil and its goals went to John Lang 4, Andy Coburn,
Mike Flaws, Nick Dale and former Southlander United player Aaron Burgess.
Burgess’s form on
his second outing from a lay-off was a bit rusty and peppered with several
missed chances.
Locally Southend United made no race of its Southland Finance premier league game against Quins Pharmacy Gore Wanderers at O’Rorke Park with a resounding 6-nil win.
In doing so it claimed the inaugural Southland Finance sponsored title as it now has an unassailable lead with just two rounds of games to be played.
Coach Gerard Wyering, in his debut season in the role, is delighted with his team’s consistent performances considering the chances of fielding a unit in the competition were remote prior to the start of its campaign.
Paul Berry 3, Nic Barclay 2 and Andrew Beaumont claimed the goals for the winners.
The only team with a realistic chance of catching Southend had that chance extinguished earlier in the day when it fought out a goal-less draw with McLellan Motors Queens Park.
It was confirmed on Saturday that the annual Southland versus Otago senior men, women and masters games will be played in Invercargill on September 15th.