SPIRIT 1, CAVERSHAM 6; May 7th

Competition leader Caversham dealt a hefty blow to Spirit FC at Rugby Park Invercargill last night when they came from a goal down to eventually race away to a 6-1 win in their  Footballsouth premier league clash.

The win consolidated the visitor’s competition lead and certainly boosted its goal difference tally.

"He fell over Ref....I would never trip a player" Morgan could be saying here

The local Spirit team showed plenty of spirit in the first half of the game scoring first when Morgan McCarrison ghosted behind the Caversham defence to a through ball at the far post and slotted home Spirit’s lone goal.

Following a blistering equalizing strike from Caversham’s Blair Duncan Spirit did well to hold their more illustrious rival to the 1-all score line at the half time break.

At that stage Spirit were right up with the play with McCarrison and player-coach Barry Gardiner equal to anything the visitors had on the park.

Spirit's Morgan McCarrison seems to be looking for support as he tries to give
Spirit a bit of go-forward.

However the complexion of the game changed as early as one minute into the second half with Caversham attacking from the outset and Spirit keeper Oswaldo Rodriquez being forced to make an amazing reaction save from the swift Caversham attack.

The visitors never let up from that moment on and in a four minute period Duncan netted his second goal to put his team in front 2-1, livewire Ant Hancock chimed in with one to make it 3-1, and an unfortunate header from a Spirit defender found its way into the Spirit net putting Caversham 4-1 ahead.

The crispness of passing and running into space off the ball from the Caversham unit was proving too much of a handful for the Spirit defence that had been so solid for the first forty five minutes.

Jason Cocker foreground holds of his opponent...
or maybe he is trying to keep away from that awful "Carlsberg Top"
 
Spirit’s momentum was destroyed at that stage and they weren’t helped when a reckless tackle from a Caversham player that resulted in Gardiner having to leave the field injured went unpunished by referee Dave Langley,
 although it was perhaps the only blot on Langley’s well controlled game.

Caversham then set about protecting its lead for the remaining time and as a bonus Harley Rodeka rounded off a good night for them when he netted two more goals to complete the 6-1 rout.
 

With Spirit playing its Footballsouth premier game on Friday night , most of the composite team players took the opportunity to turn out for their local club teams in their respective Southland premier Donald Gray cup games on Saturday as well.

However it was a non-Spirit player who stole the limelight on the day when Invercargill Brewery Waihopai’s Adrian Fonoti scored all four goals in his team’s 4-1 win over Gore Wanderers at Surrey Park.

Fonoti’s education pathway led him to Mount Albert Grammar school in Auckland where under the watchful eye of former All Whites football coach Kevin Fallon he made it to the first eleven appearing regularly at tournaments and in first eleven games in the North Island.

Waihopai coach Peter McAnelly must be delighted that Fonoti has found his way to Invercargill and has joined the Waihopai club, but the question is, will he (Fonoti) be enticed to play for Spirit FC at some time in the future?

It’s early days yet, but his all round performance and finishing excellence on Saturday suggests he is without doubt good enough.
Waihopai fielded its contingent of Spirit players who combined well with the normal senior squad members to dominate most of the play against the visitors from Gore.

Gore had its moments in the fixture, none more so, than when Nick Khan netted the goal which brought the score line back to a respectable 2-1 at the time.

Waihopai had the class across the pitch though and due mainly to Fonoti’s ball skills, pace and finishing excellence was able to cruise to the win and the valuable three points in what is shaping up to be a tight competition.

The game that was expected to provide a goal feast failed to do that when AMP South Old Boys and Southend United fought out a nil–all draw at Bain Park.

Malloch McClean Riverton gained some revenge for their loss to Sinderella’s Southend United in the
pre season final when they turned the tables to win the feature premier women’s game 4-2 at Bain Park yesterday.

In a hectic first half Riverton built a 2-nil lead with goals from Rachel Christie and Jessica Mallon before Southend
stormed back to level the score at 2-all through two Tove Crosswell goals.

On the stroke of half time Riverton regained the lead with an Ashley Gordon penalty kick,
and went to the break with the 3-2 advantage.

The pace dropped off somewhat in the second spell in which Rachel Christie netted her second goal to ensure
Riverton secured the three win points and defended the Ottley trophy from the fifth successive challenge.

A feature of the other women’s games was the six goal haul from Southbuild ITM Winton’s Susan Boniface in her teams
10-0 drubbing of Thistle.
Sam Sewpersad chimed in with three goals while Darienne Murray completed the Winton tally.

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