Charity Cup Final - Queens Park 2, Waihopai 1; Sept 13th

Queens Park retained Southland Football’s Charity cup on Saturday with a narrow 2-1 win over Waihopai at Invercargill’s Surrey Park outdoor stadium.

Bugger the housework and the four girls sure can do with a spell...
Lauren and Madge are the girls on the seats...Stu

It is the McLellan Motors sponsored team’s fourth trophy for the season joining the preseason cup, the Larry O’Rorke challenge cup and the Southland Finance premier men’s Donald Gray cup in its trophy haul.

If ever there was a game of two halves this was it as the first 45 minutes meandered along to an aimless nil-all halftime scoreline while the second had almost as much action and drama as a Bruce Willis movie.

Apart from two spectacular saves from Tansley Electrical Waihopai’s keeper Shane Harpur that kept Park from taking a first half lead the first period was peppered with woeful finishing by the strikers and plagued by some very ordinary passing and ball control.

Waihopai's Davey Price does some high stepping as he tries to entertain
in a somewhat boring first half.

Not so in the second half though as from the opening attack by Waihopai that saw Morgan McCarrison’s volley skim the upright to safety both teams lifted their level of play and intensity.

It was Park that took the lead when at the 5 minute mark Jason Gold slotted home a goal from a fine delivery across the goalmouth by Mark Pearson from the left wing.

The joy and relief of the lead lasted fully ninety seconds for Park as Waihopai’s Quinton Wicks brought them back to earth when he fired an unstoppable volley past its keeper Mark Bugden to level the score line at 1-apiece.

The intensity of the game began to affect player temperaments and following one feisty encounter in midfield Waihopai honed in on Park’s goalmouth only for Bugden to illegally bring down its striker and be shown referee Alex Wilson’s red card for the offence.

Up stepped mid-fielder Scott Morton into the role of keeper for Park and his first task was to deal with the resulting penalty kick.

He did so with confidence deflecting the shot to safety and robbing Waihopai of its chance to take the lead.

Its a lonely job but pretty easy really....Scotty saves the penalty

The personal on field battles continued-on and one nasty flare up that involved several players and a bit of pushing and shoving drew a stern warning from Wilson that settled things down a bit.

Ref Wilson (obscured) steps in to calm down this five-on-one situation...Go Morgan in the blue corner.

In the meantime Park’s regular keeper Chris Pearson who was listed as a sub on the team card made a late arrival at the ground from a private engagement and became the team’s third goalkeeper for the day allowing Morton back into the outfield.

The 2-1 result was sealed for 10 man Park when Waihopai failed to clear the ball properly while defending a corner kick and with a bit of deft skill Ryan Boyle rounded an opponent to hammer home the winning goal.

Boyle (highest) back in his defensive role having nailed the result for Park

The day of celebration didn’t end there for Queens Park as its captain and outstanding defender Danny Rosel was awarded the prestigious Southland Footballer-Of-The-Year trophy at the awards ceremony on Saturday night.

Two other notable individual awards went to Old Boy’s Kate Allison for Women’s Footballer-Of-The-Year and Winton domiciled Wendy Boniface who received the Muriel Mathieson salver for her outstanding secretarial and administration work for women’s and junior football in the province.

Southend United Green captured the Division 2 title when it defeated Enwood 4 goals to 2 at Bain Park. The Southend unit won the competition from Cabbage Tree Knox Church by a single point after a season long top of the table struggle between the two teams.

Hero of the day for Southend United was veteran Lindsay Thomas who showed there’s no substitute for experience as he netted three of its four goals.

Southland Football’s college finals will be held on this Thursday 18^th at Rugby Park Invercargill. Girls kick off at 4pm, reserve boys 5:30 and first 11 boys at 7pm.