Otago Dev 0 v Spirit 1 - Apr 5th
A lone strike deep
into the game from Scottish import Barry Gardiner gave Spirit FC the three win
points to successfully kick-start its 2008 campaign in the Soccersouth premier
league against a determined Otago youth team at Dunedin on Saturday.
One for the ref...
A big day out for Invercargill's Dean Seager (left) and
Wayne Rayner (right) as they
assist NZFC ref Brent Best to control the game...good job too lads.
Gardiner has spent the Scottish winter recuperating from the double break to his leg received in a Spirit FC game mid-season last year and showed no ill effects with a solid performance.
Remembering back to the opener last season when the development team upset Spirit with a 3-one win at Rugby Park Spirit coach Ken Cresswell was delighted with this result.
However he’s under no illusion that with the two favoured title contenders Caversham and Roslyn winning their games 7-nil and 9-one respectively there’s a lot of improvement needed from his squad.
In a re-formatted competition the aim is for Spirit to finish in the top-six on the points table at the conclusion of the first round of games.
From there the top six will play off for the chance for two of them to meet the Canterbury region top two teams in a South Island championship play off.
Spirit made a shaky start to Saturday’s game against the well prepared Otago youth team in Saturday’s encounter and although winning the possession stakes players were guilty of inaccurate passing and sloppy ball control.
The trend was
halted midway through the half when Fabian Wanjura rattled the Otago crossbar
with a stinging drive and within minutes had a side foot attempt on goal cleared
off the line.
Otago's Stephen Cromb comes to the rescue....
Buoyed by the action Spirit began to gain ascendancy on the game and gain territorial advantage. The nil-all half time scoreline reflected the play but the signs were there for a Spirit win.
Early second half Spirit pressure failed to get results as the Otago defenders led by a superb effort from central defender James Watson worked desperately to deal with Spirit’s lone striker John Schol.
With fifteen
minutes to go Cresswell decided to change his team formation and pushed
player-of-the-day Adam Letts into the midfield allowing Gardiner to move into a
more attacking role.
Keeper Tom Galloway keeps guard from Spirit's marauding
Gardiner
The effect was almost immediate when from a free kick Stephen Black sent Gardiner into the right hand corner from where he (Gardiner) deftly cut back past a defender and curled a superb volley wide of Otago keeper Tom Galloway into the net for the telling strike.
Spirit comfortably held the Otago youngsters at bay for the remainder of the game ensuring there was to be no repeat of last season’s shock loss.
Courtesy of two well struck goals by Stuart Kent Queens Park grabbed the initiative in its local pre-season tourney game beating Old Boys 2-nil and is now well placed with one game to go to win the competition.
Waihopai was the big improver when it came from a two goal deficit to gain a well earned 2-all draw with Southend United.
Ian Watson and John Ferguson gave Southend a 2-nil half time lead but the current Southland Finance premier champs had no answer to John Rikkerink’s game-saving second half brace for Waihopai.