Caversham 7, Spirit 0; April 25th

With a five goal blitz in the first sixteen minutes of the second period of play Caversham asserted its superiority over Spirit FC in their Footballsouth premier league game at Dunedin’s Tonga Park on Saturday.

Dion Cameron (left) and Cavy's Dave Dugdale had some rare tussles but with a couple of goals and
a couple of assists you'd have to say Davey won the day.

The 7-nil final score was a fair reflection of Caversham’s afternoon’s work but in hindsight perhaps a little harsh on Spirit’s contribution.

Following a moments silence for ANZAC remembrance Spirit attacked from the outset of play and a Carl Henderson volley just three minutes into the encounter drew a fine reflex save from Caversham keeper Dave O’Donavan and showed that they were there to compete.

Cavy's Tim Horner (17) attempts to take the shortcut route over Spirit's Carl Henderson

The visitors held their more illustrious rival to a 1-nil half time score line which in fact had resulted from an own-goal scored by Spirit defender Craig Milne as he attempted to head a Caversham free kick to safety.

The Caversham big guns failed to fire to any great degree in the first half and the signs looked good for Spirit FC going to the break.

Spirit indeed attacked again from the kick off after half time but was robbed of possession and, as they so often do, Caversham stormed down-field with a swift passing move which Tom Jackson completed by slotting the ball past Spirit keeper Mark Bugden to give his team a 2 goal lead.

Spirit keeper Mark Bugden has plenty of support here but clears to safety anyway.

What followed was not so much a capitulation by Spirit but a period of outstanding one touch football by the home team which by the sixteen minute mark had found the net a further four times for a 6-nil advantage.

Jackson completed his hat trick with another two goals while English import Dave Dugdale netted the other two.

Cavy import Dave Dugdale heads wide from close range...Badger on-line would have got to it anyway.

The issue for Spirit was that following the second goal its defence aborted its straight line defensive tactic that up until then had served them well.

The gaps it unwittingly created by the change played into the hands of the Caversham attacking quartet who with slick two-on-one passing moves struck at will destroying any chance of an unlikely Spirit recovery.

Spirit’s fix was somewhat effective but far too late.

That Caversham had to wait until 3 minutes from the final whistle to score another goal spoke volumes for the courage Spirit showed to avoid any further destruction.

Brendon Robinson netted for Old Boys in the first half and Daniel Turnhout, equalised for Southend in the second to take the game to a shootout.

High scoring marked yesterday’ women’s games in Invercargill with Malloch McClean Riverton’s 13-nil
win over Old Boys leading the way.
Tove Crosswell with four goals headed the long list of Riverton scorers.

At Bain Park Southend United almost matched that with its 11-nil win over Queens Park where seven Southend players contributed to the score sheet.

In the other game Thistle scraped home 3-2 against Edge Roofing and Spouting Waihopai .
Hayley Munro netting twice for the winners, as she does.

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