4 seconds in the life of Queenstown coach Darren Rewi.
1-Oh shite we've blown it..2-hmm or have we..3-ah-ha maybe not...4-nah, pretty easy really

Queenstown 4, Spirit 2; May 2nd

Spirit FC had its Footballsouth premier league aspirations dented once again on Saturday afternoon when it was beaten 4-2 by Queenstown at the Frankton events centre.

In superb overhead and underfoot conditions Spirit found itself 2-nil down at the half time break, it recovered to level the score at 2-all early in the second period of play then succumbed to two further goals by the home team and eventual defeat.

To add insult to injury, Queenstown shut up shop for the day and scored its two crucial goals after it was reduced to ten players following the sending off of defender Gareth Hampton.

Queenstown also had a hero for the day in the form of Carlos Herrmann who netted a hat trick of goals from the few opportunities he had.

Herrmann the man (left) and his penalty (9) (right)

Spirit lacks a recognised striker in its team and never has that issue been more prevalent than on Saturday when it dominated for long periods at times but could not stamp that authority with goals.

Herrmann opened the days scoring from the penalty spot 30 minutes into the game when Spirit keeper Mark Bugden clumsily bought down a Queenstown attacker in the penalty box.

On the stroke of half time Queenstown’s Sam Jasper doubled the lead to 2-nil when he fired a shot wide of Bugden into the corner of the Spirit net.

Spirit resumed the second spell with another series of attacks and was rewarded when from a Barry Gardiner corner kick Wade Griffin back headed the ball past the outstretched hands of the Queenstown keeper to reduce the lead to 2-1.

Wade (maroon right) gets a crafty back header in after practising it during the week at home...not

Ten minutes later Spirit’s player-of-the-day George Hercus levelled the score at 2-all when he volleyed a Gardiner assist ball into the net with some venom.

Badger provided the corner and the assist for the two goals

At the 30 minute mark Herrmann beat Spirit’s attempt to play him offside and raced away to lace a fierce shot past Bugden to give Queenstown back the initiative 3-2.

With the very last kick of the game Herrmann completed his hat trick of goals and stretched the score to 4-2 when he cleverly spotted Bugden out of position and lobbed the ball effortlessly into the open goal.

The win was a huge fillip for stand in Coach Darren Rewi and has lifted Queenstown above Spirit into sixth position in the eleven team league.

Now why would any right-minded Otago cricket enthusiast want to leave this score up forever.
However there it is for all to see.
It's going to be a long winter I reckon.

In Invercargill McLellan Motors Queens Park had Troy Pliesupab to thank for its 1-nil win over Tansley Electrical Waihopai. The youngster newly promoted to the first team scored the only goal of the game.

Queens Park also retained the Larry O’Rorke challenge cup with the win.

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