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Stu's genuine pic of the week.
Queens Park's Tobi Reid (gold)
not only looks angry, but, look closer
he has embedded his fist into his opponents head.
Scary stuff huh !!!
Could be "picking his brain" I suppose...
Grants Braes 5, Spirit 3; May 1st
The failure to defend set-pieces
cost Spirit FC dearly when it lost its Footballsouth premier league game against
Grants Braes 5-3 at Dunedin’s Ocean Grove on Saturday.
Spirit player-coach Barry Gardiner has plenty to
contemplate as his injury hit team
lingers in 9th spot after its 5-3 loss.
With experienced defenders
Stephen Black and Wade Griffin still missing from the squad the youthful
replacement players that had worked so well in last week’s win over Mosgiel
failed to get to grips with Grant Braes well worked free kicks and corners which
ultimately contributed to four of the five goals conceded.
To add insult, Spirit netted an own-goal to complete their opponents score line.
Ashley Hodges was the main
benefactor for Grants Braes as he grabbed a hat trick of goals for the home team
while Terry Saunders netted the other.
After exchanging goal for goal in a hectic first half, in which Spirit came back
twice from being a goal down, the Invercargill based team held a 3-2 lead at the
half time break.
Spirit’s Scottish duo of Mark Caldow 2, and Barry Gardiner netted the three
goals and there was some cause for optimism as the second half got under way.
However in the words of Spirit
player-coach Gardiner, “The home team just seemed to want the result more than
us and lifted their performance enough to hammer home the advantage. We also
suffered with the late withdrawal of our main striker Carl Henderson through
injury, but that aside we certainly need to do more work on defending those set
pieces.”
Saturday’s result meant Spirit slipped to ninth position in the ten-team
competition.
The top two teams Caversham and Dunedin Technical fought out a 2-all draw in
their clash in Dunedin.
Former Southland player Aaron Burgess returned from injury to net one of the
Tech goals helping his team to grab a valuable point and retain its unbeaten
record.
In Invercargill Eyeview Queens Park came out the victor 3-2 over Invercargill
Brewery Waihopai in a stirring Southland men’s premier league game at Turnbull
Thomson Park.
In better mood Tobi (13) easily slots his penalty past
Waihopai Keeper Shane Harpur
Park opened the scoring when Tobi Reid netted from a penalty kick but Waihopai
fought back and deservedly went to the break on equal terms courtesy of a well
taken goal from Spirit FC striker Carl Henderson.
Park's Joe
Young (foreground) defends the ball fro Waihopai's Matty McDowell
Waihopai newcomer Adrian Fonoti showed a touch of class with a cracking goal to
put his team in front 2-1 early in the second spell.
A Waihopai player (sorry until someone names him for
me...)
shows there's even room for a few keep ups on the new turf.
Ref Nobby who contributed well to a good game seems impressed too...
Queens Park kept its composure though and was rewarded for some good play when
Scott Morton levelled the score at 2-all mid way through the half.
Despite Scott Morton berating me for taking a picture of
the unfortunate Mark Pearson
being tended to by Waihopai's Dave Price I just ignored him and carried on with
it.
Sorry Scotty if i'm to achieve "Paparazzi" fame it's something I have to do.
It was becoming more obvious that the true bounce and roll of the ball which
playing on the new artificial surface at Turnbull Thomson provides was
responsible for the better quality of football being played.
The proof came fifteen minutes from full time when a pin-point through ball was
delivered to the feet of Park’s Stuart Kent who swiftly directed his shot on
goal past the Waihopai keeper to give his team their 3-2 result and the all
important three win points from the game.
It was a big day for J K Stevenson
Queens Park women when they celebrated their
new sponsorship deal with their first ever win in the Premier competition since
joining
last season.
Four goals each from Natalie Johnston and Panda Laking sealed Park’s impressive
win over Thistle.
League leader Sinderella’s Southend United accounted for EWL Southland Waihopai
7-1
while second placed Malloch McClean Riverton defeated Winton 4-nil to stay on
track
for their top two meeting with Southend next Sunday.
Sahara MacDonald spearheaded Queenstown’s win over Old Boys at the resort
scoring her teams 4 goals
in their 4-1 win.