Spirit 5, Queenstown 0; July 11th

Scottish imports Barry Gardiner and Craig Milne used the puggy ground conditions at Surrey Park in Invercargill to showcase their skills for Spirit FC in its resounding 5-nil win over Queenstown Rovers in their Footballsouth premier league clash on Saturday.

Craig Milne (Milner) a standout performance...

It was a day for quality ball skills, strength and endurance and the two Scotsmen along with Spirit’s player-of-the-day Brendon Lloyd adapted best and produced quality performances.

Spirit's Brendon Lloyd's punishes himself with a one-arm press up after losing possession.

In a somewhat surprise move player-coach Gardiner elected to go with two Spirit Academy players in his starting line-up and both Matt Webb and Keiran van Loon did not let him down as they quickly adapted to their new team mates and settled into the pattern of play.

Their reward was a full ninety minutes of game time.

Spirit's Academy prospect Keiran van Loon stepped up to the plate

It was the youngster Webb who had the first real opportunity to open the scoring for Spirit when he was set free in the penalty area but in an unselfish act he elected to slip the ball to the better placed Gardiner for him to stroke it into the Queenstown net for the 1-nil lead.

Spirit immediately gained possession from the Queenstown kick off and in a lightning attack Gardiner placed the ball across the front of goal where Milne had slipped by the Queenstown defenders unnoticed to slot the ball home and give Spirit the lead 2-nil.

Ten minutes later it was Gardiner the provider again when he cleverly beat a defender and scooped the ball to Carl Henderson who glanced his header past the Queenstown keeper for Spirit to go to the half time break with a comfortable 3-nil advantage.


Carl's glancing header causes some distress in the visitors defence

Twelve minutes into the second half Gardiner’s determined run at the Queenstown goal was blocked by a defender but the ball rolled to Spirit’s Josh Frewen who made no mistake from close range and at 4-nil the game was very much all over for Queenstown.

Barry Gardiner confronts the Queenstown keeper just seconds before Josh's goal

Three minutes later Henderson scored his second goal and Spirit’s fifth after a good solo run and clinical finish from the left flank.

Queenstown coach Steve Henderson subbed himself on with around thirty five minutes of playing time remaining and his presence seemed to stabilise the visitors mid field and defensive effort.

Steve Henderson in full flight brought some stability to his team

So much so that Spirit was unable to add to its tally, but nor did it concede any goals as its defensive back line of van Loon, Milne, Dion Cameron and Wade Griffin had well and truly shut-up-shop for the day.

Spirit's Jason Cocker shows some agility here as he controls the ball and sets up another attack.

AMP South Old Boys continued its march toward the Southland men’s premier title and defended the Larry O’Rorke challenge trophy with a hard fought 1-nil win over McLellan Motors Queens Park at O’Rorke Park.

Park’s cause wasn’t helped by a period of ill-discipline that resulted in the sending off of Tobi Reid and Cory Johnson for separate indiscretions before the half time break by referee John Doody.

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