Chatham Cup Round 1; May 23rd

Invercargill teams Waihopai and AMP South Old Boys earned themselves a Queens Birthday Monday clash in round two of the New Zealand wide Chatham Cup football competition with convincing wins against Dunedin opponents in Dunedin on Saturday.
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Left: Peter McAnelly Waihopai, Right: Scott Mackenzie (Old Boys)  advanced their teams to round 2
of the Chatham cup and will face off in the "Battle Of The Birthday" Mon June 1st

For Old Boys it will cap off a great weekend for the club as it celebrates its 50^th Jubilee from Friday to Sunday before facing the round-two local derby game on the Monday.
On Saturday both teams faced Footballsouth premier league teams in their games and dealt to them with some authority.

Goals from Dave Fosbender, Glen McMurdo and Jason Cocker sealed Saturday’s emphatic win for the local Donald Gray cup leader Old Boys against Green Island at Sunnyvale, but even more significant was its strong defensive effort that prevented the home team from scoring for the first time this season.

Across town at Ocean Grove Waihopai established a 2-nil lead against Grants Braes by the half time break, stretched it to 3-nil early in the second stanza and then was forced to hold off a fight-back from the home team before clinching the win by 4 goals to 2.

Chris Jones made light of his veteran status with two goals for Waihopai while regular Spirit FC players Craig Milne and Josh Frewen completed its scoring.

Chris Jones

Summing up the Invercargill team’s performances former Footballsouth Manager Wilson James, who watched a half of each game, said “I was really impressed with the standard of the visiting teams, they each took their chances well and deserved their wins”.

In Invercargill McLellan Motors Queens Park’s chances of progressing to round two at the expense of the visiting Otago University team were extinguished midway through the first half when Alex Mason scored the second of his two fine goals for the day to give his team its 2-nil win.

Park's Ashley Hughes (12) remembers all he learned while at Thistle and clears well from the
marauding Alex Mason (left)

In a twist of fate within minutes of that goal Park lost the services of its potent striker Jonny Cox with a leg injury that he persevered with until half time but was then forced to withdraw from the game.
Despite the student’s two goals, Cox and his strike partner Domnik Katvick had looked capable of getting something from the game for Queens Park, however with the partnership broken it then lacked any real threat on attack.

Park's Matty Burgess (Yellow top) challenges for the ball not long before getting his traditional card.
Minutes earlier Matty was clattered with no action against the Varsity perp' (That's SVU talk...) Hmmmmm

On the positive side the substitution forced Park to shuffle its line up in the second half and the introduction of Adam Letts in midfield steadied the ship and at least curtailed the visitors from scoring for the rest of the game.

Above: Queens Park's Adam Letts subbed on for the second half
heads to safety in their Chatham Cup clash with University.
Park went to the break 2 down and that's how it finished.

Below: Alex Mason who did the damage for the students
with his two fine first half goals

Park did however have Chris Beullens in goal to thank for keeping the score respectable with a strong display between the sticks. His magnificent double reflex save in the first half when University was seeking to put the result well out of Park’s reach was quite outstanding.
 
Chris had no worries here as a high-flying student heads well over....
but look at that un-defended gap though...ouch

At Queenstown the locals made no race of its game against West End from Timaru, eventually completing an 8-1 win. Queenstown will face University in round two.

Malloch McClean Riverton continued its overpowering form in the Southland premier women’s competition yesterday when it easily accounted for Thistle 9-0.

Tove Crosswell, Jessica Mallon and Sarah Coote netted two goals each for Riverton while Nicole Anderson, Kate Allison and Vanessa Hamlin completed the scoring.

At Winton Southend United led by a two goal haul from Jackie Robertson captured the Ottley challenge trophy from the home team with a 4-1 win.

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